A Good Idea
by Kurissyma san Tybalt
Summary: "I think it's a good idea though. You... kids... I can see it." Based on the end of 3x04. The revelation of Emily's desire to be a mother leads her and JJ to consider a very novel experiment: 3 months of co-habitation to determine whether or not they're fit to raise a child together. Chapter 8 is rated M.
1. Chapter 1

"_I think it's a good idea though. You... kids... I can see it."_

"You were serious, weren't you?" I asked her as we exited the jet. Emily had been subdued the whole flight home and, despite her reassurances to Hotch, I knew the issue of Carrie's placement was still on her mind. "It wasn't just that you could afford to or you could handle it. You wanted to."

Glancing at her face, I found Emily regarding me with those dark, soulful eyes of hers, deciding how much to tell me.

"I was serious too," I added, hoping it would make a difference. "Em, you'd make an amazing mother."

"I probably won't ever have the chance," Emily admitted dismissively and I saw her glance back at Reid and Morgan, who had fallen behind us. Rossi and Hotch were now so far ahead they were almost out of sight. They'd been in a rush to leave but I was in no hurry.

"Why not?" I asked. "You're still young enough and you're—well, you're you."_ Great, Jennifer. That was really articulate_. "Anyone would be lucky to have you."

"I'm young enough _now_," Emily agreed, still sounding hesitant. She threw another glance over her shoulder and I was intrigued. What was she so afraid the others would hear?

"But...?" I prompted. I didn't want to push too hard. Emily had a tendency to fall back just when you were getting close to her. It was a defence mechanism I had only begun learning to intercept.

"But it's not as easy as finding someone and getting knocked up," was the answer Emily came out with. "For me... Well, I'd have to find someone, obviously I'd have to trust them completely, and we'd both have to be serious as hell about raising a child. Then it would either be adoption or IVF and both can be long, long processes..."

So that was it. "Em, if you've got fertility problems that's nothing that can't be—"

"I haven't got any fertility problems," Emily interjected and now she wouldn't meet my eye. She fell silent and seemed to be waiting for something to hit me, which of course it did.

"You're gay," I realised belatedly. "Why didn't you just say so?"

She looked at me now and I perceived tightness in her lips. Embarrassment, maybe? Guilt at having kept this from me? She was tense, in any case, and said nothing as we entered the car park. Our own cars were back at Quantico and the SUVs we'd driven to the airport before the case awaited us. Hotch and Rossi had already gone on but Morgan and Reid weren't far behind us. We waved them goodbye and Emily waited until we were safely in the car to answer my question.

"It's personal," she hedged. "And it's hard to predict how people will react. Sometimes good people hold views that you'd think would be out of character for them. Anyway, It's not a dimension I thought needed to be added to the team dynamic."

"I get that," I replied truthfully, watching as she diverted her attention to starting the car and pulling out of the space. "But did you really think I wouldn't understand? We talk about men all the time. And I thought you went on dates? With men, I mean. Don't you?"

Emily shrugged, seeming glad to be able to focus on the road rather than meeting my gaze. "I date men occasionally," she divulged. "I was serious about Carrie, Jayj. I want kids, at least one. I always have. But there's no spark for me with men and in the end dating them only makes me—and them—feel bad. That's hardly the point of the endeavour, is it?"

"Hardly," I agreed, a small smile quirking up one corner of my lips. Then, hesitantly I added, "I'm attracted to both men and women, you know. I could've teased you just as hard about your girlfriends as I did about your boyfriends. No judgment here."

"No, you— Really? You're bisexual?"

Hearing it put like that made me feel uncomfortably like an experimental college student, but I guess that was how I'd be classed if I put any stock in labels. Still, the blush that lit up Emily's cheeks was more than worth the discomfort. I found myself laughing as she glanced at me, trying not to take her eyes off the road but unable to resist a look. I think she thought I was joking.

"Really," I promised. "I thought you'd realised by now or I might have mentioned it. I suppose I date men more often because, like you said, I want kids. It's just so much easier with guys, isn't it? You don't even have to try half the time..." It wasn't long before we were pulling into the car park and climbing out, ready to find our own cars and go home. "Just do me a favour, Em," I asked her. "Don't give up just yet. I really believe you'll be a great mom."

Emily's smile was sad but it was honest too and that made my heart swell unexpectedly. "Maybe," she said. "I hope so."

I leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to her cheek, just by her ear, surprising even myself. Waving goodbye, I turned before she could see the matching blush that was rising in my own cheeks.

* * *

That night I couldn't get Emily's face out of my head. The vulnerability she'd shown on the jet, the earnest yearning in her voice. It was more than just thinking she'd like kids one day. For her to actually offer to Hotch that she could take Carrie home across state lines, that was desperation from her. She wanted children now, while she was still young enough to see them and maybe their children grow up.

I remembered Will, the New Orleans detective I'd briefly dated. He'd been unbelievably sweet and his flirtations had made me feel like a goddess, yet there'd been no magic for me, especially with our dates so few and far between. What I missed most now that we'd gone our separate ways was not the relationship itself but the conversations. Cuddled on the couch, talking 'til all hours. Why couldn't that have been enough for me? What more did I want?

I wanted to talk to Emily again. I felt it as a deep pull in my chest— something telling me our conversation wasn't over, that there was more for us to say on this subject. But I was too tired and too uncertain as to what that was. I didn't think I could focus on breaking through Emily's walls at the same time as figuring it out.

So I called Will instead. His gravelly voice on the other end of the line was a relief.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He answered, sounding surprised but not unhappy to hear from me.

"I need someone to talk to," I admitted, falling back on my sofa, a glass of wine in hand. "And I missed you. Can we talk without it being about us? I'm not calling because I want to get back together."

Will chuckled quietly. "I know you well enough to know that, Jayj. Your decisions are final." There was no bitterness in his tone. "Bad case?"

I took a sip slowly. "Good and bad," I told him. "The case itself was horrible. Whole families murdered in their homes... But because of it we got a house full of kids out of a bad situation."

"Sounds like a victory to me," Will answered kindly. I heard him let out a soft puff of air as he dropped onto his own couch. I guessed he was lying back, the way he always used to when we were together, staring up at the ceiling in contemplation. "What's eatin' you up?"

"Emily wanted to take one of the girls home," I found myself blurting out. "An orphan. She thought she could keep her. Well, she has the means to do it, definitely. And she's committed. And loving. And— I don't know. I guess what's bothering me is that I never saw her as a mother before but now that I have..."

"Jayj, do you have feelings for her?"

I choked on my wine and immediately sat up straighter. _"What?"_ There was no way he could tell that just from how I was talking. I hadn't even voiced that possibility to myself yet! "Will, w-what makes you say that?"

"I always suspected it," Will told me and I could hear a smile in his voice. He sounded almost relieved. "But I think the way you're reacting right now just about proves it. Tell me—is that maiden blush of yours flaring up again?"

I pressed a hand to my cheek disbelievingly. "Yes," I groaned.

"Even I could tell Emily was gay when I met her, Jayj. To be honest, it made me a little uncomfortable. I got the picture she didn't like me flirting with you."

"Will, are you being serious right now?" I whispered, losing my voice out of nowhere. "I only found out Em was gay a couple of hours ago!"

Will whistled cheerily and followed it up with a laugh. "Darlin', you're the profiler and you're telling me you didn't know!"

"S-she told me I should call you back!" I protested. "When we were in New Orleans the first time. Why would she tell me to call you if she was jealous!"

"Because she cares about you, darlin'," Will replied, his voice softening. "It probably took a lot o' gumption for her to do that. Honestly, if I know Emily—and maybe I don't but we'll see—I think she would have quietly assumed she had no chance with you and done her best to get past her feelings by encouraging you with others. Now I think maybe she's the one with the wrong idea. ...Were you ever really attracted to me, JJ?"

I felt my heart break at that. If only he were angry. He just sounded sad. "Do you think I would've called you if I wasn't interested? Will, there's no way I would've, no matter what Emily did or didn't tell me to do. It's not that I'm not attracted to men at all..."

"It's men and women, I get it," Will accepted. I knew it wasn't easy for him but I also knew he'd been trying harder ever since he found out about his friend Charlie being gay. I knew he was changing, adapting, even as we spoke. "I think it's pretty clear why you called, Jayj. You're scared because talking to Emily about having kids made you think about having kids with her and now you're feeling all these things you've been biting back for such a long time and its overwhelming. I understand."

"How come you understand and I don't," I sighed and there were tears coming down my face now. I didn't even care if he could hear that I was crying. "Will, I want kids. You're right about me being attracted to women too, but I _decided_ to only date men to avoid all the bureaucracy and difficulties of trying to have a child with a woman. At least if its inside me I know no one can take it away, it's mine..."

Will was silent for a few moments then he spoke quietly. "Jayj, if you ever need someone... You and Emily, or just you... I don't mind donating. I'll waive parental rights and Emily can adopt. I— You know what I'm saying?"

"I know what you're saying," I murmured disbelievingly. "But are you serious?"

"I'm as serious as you are," Will replied, which was roughly equivalent to saying _more serious than I've ever been about anything in my entire life._ "But you gotta talk to Emily first."

"She doesn't know I like her," I said, suddenly uncertain.

"Darlin', don't say _like_ when it's not what you mean. You're an adult," Will directed me softly.

"I love her..." I realised. "Oh my god, Will. I'm in love with Emily!"

"There you go," he praised me. His voice was gentle, reassuring. Why had I gone so long without calling him? "It's up to you to decide what to do with those feelings, Jayj. But my offer stands, whenever you're ready... I've missed talkin' to you."

"I've missed you too, Will," I breathed. "And I can't thank you enough—"

"You don't need to thank me at all," Will promised. "We're friends. I want to see you happy. Happier than I could make you."

"You're still making me happy now," I told him. "Let's not leave so long before talking again."

"Whenever you want, darlin'."

I took a deep gulp of wine as he hung up the phone, then tipped back the rest of the glass as I made a decision. This wasn't something Emily and I could talk about at work, which meant I'd have to go to her house. Right now, while I had the balls to go through with it. The only question was whether or not to call ahead.

Call ahead, I knew was the only answer. If I didn't I'd almost certainly chicken out on the drive over. Oh yeah, _driving_... Maybe I shouldn't have had that wine. Too late now.

"Emily, are you at home?" I asked too quickly as she picked up the phone.

"_Yes..._" She replied slowly, cautiously.

"Alone?"

"Except for Sergio," Emily acknowledged. "Why? You thinking of robbing me, JJ?"

Her use of my name made me realise I'd forgotten even to say who was calling. Still, she'd obviously figured it out.

"Can I come over?" I asked, wasting no time in explanation. "Please?"

A pause. "Of course you can," she replied, concerned. "Have you eaten?"

"What?" Food was so far from my mind that it took me a minute to process what she'd said.

"Have you had dinner?" Emily tried again. "I was just about to make something."

"I can come later—"

"Jayj, I'm not telling you not to come," Emily sighed. "I'm just asking how much pasta to put in the pot. You know you're welcome."

I was still debating a response when my stomach decided to growl loudly. When Emily laughed on the other side of the line I knew she'd heard it.

"Okay," she said. "That settles it. If you leave now I should have something ready within ten minutes of you getting here. How's that for service?"

"That sounds amazing," I breathed gratefully. "I'll see you soon."

* * *

When I arrived at Emily's house she was still wearing her work clothes—a pair of wide-legged black slacks and a dark red blouse—but the blouse had been unbuttoned to reveal the black singlet underneath and her feet were bare. She also wore an apron folded in half around her waist like a server in a restaurant. Wait. She was just making pasta wasn't she?

I could smell it the second she opened the door. "Just" pasta was apparently an understatement.

"Em, that smells incredible," I sighed appreciatively. "You didn't have to go to trouble."

"Save it, Jennifer," Emily replied, ushering me inside. "All I had to do was double the recipe I was already making. To be honest, you're saving me from eating my dinner on the floor next to Sergio."

She was joking and yet her grin faltered. I found myself reaching out to touch her elbow gently.

"You're wondering what it would be like if Hotch had let you take Carrie home," I guessed, keeping my voice low and non-threatening. _Please, don't pull away from me, Em._

For a brief moment Emily lifted her eyes to meet mine. "That was stupid of me," she said. "I should've known Hotch wouldn't approve. Anyway he's right. That's the job..."

"…And this isn't," I finished. "Please don't treat me like your colleague right now. I'm not here as someone you work with."

I watched the curiosity grow in Emily's eyes, could feel her straining to understand, taking me in. Still, she didn't ask me why I _had_ come, or in what capacity, and I was glad. I didn't know what kind of answer I was ready to give.

"I get lonely," she admitted suddenly. "Like we all do, I guess. Coming back to an empty house after seeing what we see… I'm glad you're here. That's what I'm saying, Jen."

_Jennifer, Jen. _That was twice she'd called me by my real name since I'd walked in the door. Maybe I was reading her wrong. Maybe she wasn't trying to treat me like a colleague at all... I blushed as the quiet music that had been playing as I walked in had a chance to wash over me. God, the sight of her standing there in an apron with dinner on the stove, listening to soft jazz... It was doing something very unexpected to me. (Although I probably should have expected it.)

"Can I get you a glass of wine?"

"What are you drinking?" I asked and she walked around the counter, into the kitchen, and raised the bottle with the label facing toward me. It wasn't something I recognised.

"Try it," she offered, lifting her half-empty glass.

As I took it both of us seemed to notice at the same time a faint outline of lipstick on the rim. Our eyes met and, keeping my face impassive, I placed my lips over the same place she had and took a sip. I licked my lips as I handed the glass back and noticed, with some interest, that her eyes followed the subtle movement of my tongue. "Mm, that's good," I replied with a smile.

I watched her eyes searching again, trying to get a read on me. Failing, she turned back toward the stove. "Sit down," she called. "Dinner won't be long."

I leaned against the counter separating the kitchen from the living room and considered joining her instead but I decided against it. I wouldn't push her too far too quickly. Let her think that she was in control. I was beginning to feel quite powerful now. I'd realised that Will was right. Every flicker of her eyes, every simple touch, told me that Emily was mine if I wanted her. And, God, did I want her.

I walked over to the CD player and turned the music up. I started with a couple of slow turns, dancing myself around the living room, and I smiled invitingly as Emily turned her head to watch.

"You're beautiful."

The words had tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them. I knew because I witnessed the exact moment she realised she'd spoken aloud: the fear and embarrassment, quickly replaced by confusion and then desire as I laughed softly.

"Do you think so?" I teased and, swallowing, she nodded.

"Do you want to come and taste this, see if it's ready?" She asked, changing the subject.

I was by her side within a few strides, standing close beside her. Taking the proffered piece of cutlery, I dipped into the pot and took a mouthful. Emily didn't step back, leaving us shoulder to shoulder. I was shorter than her and watching me meant she had to look down, highlighting the thickness of her sensual, dark lashes. I let a small moan escape my throat as I tasted her food, delighting in the way she tensed beside me.

"That's amazing, Em. Let's eat."

We ate on the couch with our bowls in our laps and for a while the intensity between us died down. We talked about simple, easy things and laughed naturally. It was as if we'd made a silent pact to avoid serious topics of conversation until the meal was over. She didn't ask me why I'd come. Once, she jokingly wiped a spot of sauce off my chin and the feeling of her thumb brushing my skin made me shiver.

When we finished eating she seemed reluctant to place her bowl down on the low table in front of us. It took her a moment or two to build herself up to it. Then she turned toward me on the couch, lifting one leg to curl beneath her. "Are you okay, Jennifer?"

The sound of my name on her lips was toxic to me. None of my friends had called me that in years and, coming from her, it sounded intimate and special. Her naturally husky and resonant voice didn't help matters.

"Do I look like I'm not okay?" I countered, mimicking her position and inclining my head toward her.

"Something's different," she replied.

"You know what it is," I surprised myself with my own boldness. "Don't doubt yourself."

Emily's eyes crinkled slightly, a sign of curiosity, understanding. She smiled. "You're flirting with me. You have been all night. Why?"

"Why?" I repeated. "I think you're old enough to know why one person flirts with another, Emily."

Emily lifted her wine glass from the table and took a deep sip before setting it back down. The way she looked at me through those thick eyelashes of hers was something else. I found myself unable to tear my eyes away as she leaned toward me. The brushing of our lips came almost as a surprise.

"Are you teasing me because I told you I was gay or is this really what you want?" She asked me. Her lips hung torturously near to mine and her voice was smooth, even.

"Em," I breathed, lifting my hand to her cheek. "I wouldn't tease you like this if I weren't serious. Before I called you, I was talking to Will." _Okay, that was definitely jealously in her eyes. Good to know!_ "As a friend," I added. "He understands that it's over between us and when I talked to him tonight he said he understood why. He told me he thought you'd been jealous of him during our first case in New Orleans but, God, Em if I'd known that I would never have called him back." The last bit came out almost as a whine: "You never even told me you were gay."

"Jayj," Emily protested. "It may have been a surprise to you that I want children but it's no secret that you do. You come from a big family and you have such a big heart..."

I took her face in both hands before she could pull away. "Emily, are you really telling me you would've asked me out if you weren't worried about not being able to give me children?" I asked seriously.

"I don't know if I _would've,_" Emily admitted. "But _Jesus_, Jen, I wanted to. I didn't think you'd be interested. I thought Will would've been better for you than me so I told you to go for him. To make you happy."

"Will said he'd donate," I blurted out. It definitely wasn't how I'd imagined telling her—I hadn't been planning on telling her tonight at all. We weren't even a couple, for God's sake. But the thought had me so excited that I had to say it out loud, make it real. I had to let her know just what I was in for, what we could have if she let us.

"What?" Emily's voice was entirely uncomprehending. My outburst had come out of nowhere.

"I didn't ask," I quickly explained. "He offered. He said he understood that I— That it was _you_ I was in love with. He said if I—if we—ever needed, he'd be our donor. He'd waive his parental rights and, Emily, you could adopt. God, I know this is too fast. It's not like I'm suggesting we go and do this tomorrow, I just—"

Tripping over my own words, it was Emily's lips that finally cut me off, and this time it was no chaste peck we shared. Her hands gripped my neck and moved into my hair, her mouth open and sliding against mine. I only pulled away when I felt her hands shaking. She was struggling not to cry.

"Oh my god. Em, are you—"

Emily held up a hand for silence as she caught her breath. Her eyes were wide as she stared down at the couch where her knee leaned against mine. "Are you really saying what I think you're saying?" she asked disbelievingly.

"I-if what you think I'm saying is that I'd like to have a child with you, then yes. I think I am," I whispered, taking her hand. "I know it's sudden. And I understand, obviously I do, if you don't want—"

"JJ, look at me," Emily insisted, raising her head. Her eyes were wet and intense. "Do I look like I don't want this?"

"I don't know, Em. It's so sudden that it's insane but I want— I don't think I'm thinking rationally. Maybe—"

"You do know. Don't doubt yourself," Emily repeated my words from before. "Jennifer, saying goodbye to Carrie today nearly broke my heart. I'd already let myself hope... And if this is you and me, doing this— I can't believe it but…"

"But it's okay?" I whispered, trying not to sound like I was pleading. I needed to know.

Again, Emily kissed me in lieu of answering. Her lips on mine were desperate, full of want. I felt like a teenager, exploring the shape and feel of a new mouth, a new landscape. I wanted to touch her but I still wasn't sure what this was, what we were agreeing to.

"It's amazing," Emily reassured me, pulling away. "But before we bring a baby into the world, we need to know if we can live together, be parents together."

"What are you suggesting?" I asked, tucking my face into her neck. "A trial period? Some sort of cohabitation experiment? Putting Sergio in a diaper?"

"If I say yes to everything but the diaper, will you move in here? You don't have to give up your place," Emily promised. "Say three months. By then we should have developed some sort of rhythm. We'll have an idea of where we stand, whether we could have a child together."

"And work?" I asked, hating to be the one to bring it up.

"They don't need to know," Emily replied. Then she quickly qualified her statement. "It's not that I don't want them to. It's just, for this to be an experiment in the true sense of the word, we need to control the variables. We don't want anyone but us to weigh in on our decision."

"Three months," I agreed, and then wondered, "You really think we can trick a team of profilers into thinking nothing has changed between us for three months? While we're planning to have a baby?"

"We'll have to be on our best behaviour," Emily acknowledged but she was grinning widely.

"We really will... Em, could you love me? I mean, regardless of any child. Could you love _me?" _I couldn't stand the uncertainty that was transparent in my own voice but Emily's arms around my back smoothed away my fears.

"Jennifer, I've loved you for so long," she murmured into my hair. "You just never saw it."

"I think I've been falling for you since we met," I answered honestly. It was easier to say with my face tucked into her neck, not having to meet her eyes.

"Keep falling," Emily told me. "When you get there, I'll catch you."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN./ I finished (I think) my morphology assignment today (due tomorrow at 5), so have some fluff on me! And thank you for all your lovely reviews to the first chapter! This fic is definitely an indulgence for me so I'm glad you're enjoying it too :D -Bec xx**

**Chapter 2**

The experiment had been running for all of one hour before we ran into our first problem. Having drank decidedly too much to drive home, it was decided that - although sudden - cohabitation would commence immediately and trips would be made to my apartment to gather essentials in the following days.

This was not the problem. We celebrated the decision with even more alcohol and Emily provided me with her work-pyjamas. I.e. the pair that she wore while sleeping away on cases. These consisted of a pair of long pants which trailed on the floor when I wore them and a button down shirt - the sort of conservative affair you wouldn't mind your colleagues seeing you in if there was an emergency. Emily, meanwhile, wore the pyjamas that she reserved for home use: a spaghetti-strapped pink tank top and a teeny tiny pair of shorts.

Okay, I was getting inconveniently horny now, but that wasn't the problem either.

No, the problem was: Emily and I both slept on the same side of the bed.

I know it was her house and I should've respected her time-learned sleeping patterns but when I came out of the bathroom and found her tucked up on the left side of the bed with a book in her hands, I did the only thing I could think of.

"Em, would you mind getting me a glass of water?"

The look in her eyes was very clearly _Jennifer Jareau, you know exactly where the kitchen is; what are you up to?_ But the response that came out of her mouth was, "Sure thing."

I tried to keep my staring to a minimum as she swung one long (bare!) leg out of bed after the other. It was only once I was sure she'd left the room and turned the corner that I jumped into bed in her place. I pulled the blankets up to my chin protectively and prepared my most endearing facial expression for her return.

_But I'm so cute and you said you love me! Please can I have your spot?_ Yep, sounded good to me.

When she returned with the water, Emily looked surprised at first and then chuckled, glancing down at the floor before meeting my eye. "Are we having our first marital issue, Jennifer?" she asked.

I was transfixed by her gleaming eyes and although I opened my mouth, it took a few moments to formulate a reply. "Nope - at least not as long as you surrender the left side of your bed to me."

"I have been sleeping on the left side of the bed since I was a kid," Emily told me, carefully placing the glass of water on the table beside me.

"So have I," I whined.

"I'm older than you!"

"Relationships are about compromise!"

"Then compromise!"

I found myself giggling wildly as Emily tickled me far enough from the side of the bed for her to slide in next to me. Not to be chased away, I grabbed her hands and stood - or, rather, lay - my ground, leaving us nose to nose, our bodies touching all the way down to our toes.

"Is this what you meant?" I asked quietly. My breath was unsteady from the surprise of being tickled.

"Not what I had in mind, but..."

Her hand automatically came to rest at my waist, sending a thrill up my spine. Yesterday I might have got the same thrill from her hand brushing the small of my back as she passed me while working a case, or the feeling of her shoulder pressed against mine as we sat on the jet. We'd broken through every barrier there was to break so fast it was unbelievable. I didn't regret it. She was amazing.

But I still needed to be on 'my' side of the bed to sleep.

Developing another ploy, I began to kiss her softly. It wasn't much of a stretch - we were already so close. I settled both hands on her hips and clung to her as I pressed my tongue into her mouth. A satisfied moan told me that Emily thought she'd won and I allowed her to entertain the idea. As our kiss became more heated and her hands wandered, I kept mine firmly at her hips, and when she was lost enough I used them to pull her on top of me.

This kind of sharing her side of the bed, Emily didn't seem to mind, and the sight of her above me, straddling my hips was not one I was going to be forgetting any time soon either. Briefly, I savoured the position, running my hands from her hips down to her ass and gasping as another moan tumbled from her mouth to mine. Then I did what I'd planned to do and quickly tipped Emily from on top of me to the right side of the bed, where she landed with a surprised _fwump_.

"Oh, you did not just do that," she husked, her voice low and deep.

I swallowed hard. "You going to do something about it?"

"Nope." She reached her hands towards me and I shifted a little reluctantly toward her. We may have been lying in the centre of the bed but her arms around me improved the situation. I mirrored her and lay my head against her chest. I could feel the quick rise and fall of her breaths as they evened out and the beating of her heart doing the same.

I had to admit, lying in the centre of the bed with Emily was vastly superior to lying on the left side alone. I think she'd decided the same thing.

"Have we reached a compromise, Jennifer?" She asked fondly. I could feel her lips moving against my hair and I held her tighter.

"Our first one," I agreed.

"The first of many, I hope."

I lifted my head. Our lips touched, parted. I closed my eyes.

"Me too."

* * *

"Do you think they'll notice I'm wearing your top?" I called into the kitchen as I quickly buttoned up Emily's dark blue blouse.

"It's a bit late to worry about that now. We've got half an hour to get to the office and it'll take at least twenty five minutes to drive," Emily replied without looking up from the paper. "Are you ready?"

"Do I _look_ ready?" I couldn't help but giggle. The blouse was only halfway to buttoned and I wasn't wearing any pants.

Emily bit her lip as she looked me up and down. "Hurry up," she said, sounding like it was the last thing she really wanted to say.

I pulled on yesterday's slacks and tried to smooth out the creases with my hands. "Where's your hairbrush gone?"

"Hasn't _gone _anywhere. It's on the bed, where you left it - out of place, I might add - the last time you brushed your hair," Emily replied. "Do you always need to look like you're advertising a bloody salon? Let's go!"

"I had no idea you were so grumpy in the mornings, Emily!" I gasped in mock-surprise. To tell the truth, I knew _exactly_ that from spending so long working with her. I also knew that since it was already 8:30 she was desperately craving a coffee. She'd avoided making one to save time once we (okay, _she_) realised we'd slept in.

"Jennifer," she warned.

"Okay, I'm coming. I'm coming! We've got time."

"You know very well time's the last thing we have!" Emily snapped, grabbing the keys and her bag up off the counter. "Got everything?"

"Almost," I answered chirpily. "Missing my kiss good morning."

With an unconvincing groan Emily gave me a quick peck as I met her at the door. I made her stop to kiss me properly and she was definitely trying her best to hide a smile as we pulled apart.

We drove to work separately and somehow it was only me who was late. I'd lost five minutes somewhere - Emily had to have taken a short cut. She gave me a sly smile as I entered the bullpen. She'd used that five minutes to get herself a coffee from the machine.

"Sorry, got stuck in traffic," I lied smoothly and Garcia fired up the projector to debrief us on the case without an ounce of suspicion.

That morning we flew to Oregon and the first day of our experiment passed otherwise unexceptionally.

Of course, the travel was going to be hard once we had a child - I tried not to read too deeply into the fact that I was already assuming the experiment would be successful - but there were adaptions we could make. Emily wasn't hard up for money and I managed my salary well enough that it was always possible for one or both of us to start working part time. I doubted either of us would leave the BAU completely, we'd already seen Hotch struggle with that decision. Still, we'd figure something out.

"I think we should get a puppy," I mused as Emily and I sat in the motel bar three days later. The case had had a relatively speedy and successful conclusion and the rest of the team would be here soon to celebrate. Emily and I had privately agreed to arrive early to spend a rare bit of time alone. We'd been avoiding all non-case-related interactions since we arrived in Oregon.

"A puppy? Really?" Emily raised an eyebrow. "How many small creatures do you _want_ running around our house?"

_**Our**__ house. God that sounded good._

"Sergio's too low maintenance," I complained. "You leave him food and he takes care of himself. We need a pet who really _needs_ us."

"And when the baby's born?"

"Then the real fun begins!" I laughed. Then I added, "But seriously, Emily - every kid needs a dog and the aim is to see if we can be parents, right? Surely we can handle a puppy!"

"I never had a dog," Emily told me, but her tone suggested she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea. She was just figuring out the logistics before she committed - it was very typical of her and much unlike me.

"Emily, you barely had a _home_ with all that moving about," I replied dismissively. "Trust me. Kids love dogs."

"Sergio will need to adapt to not being king of the household..."

"He'll have to do that anyway when he's got a grabby little baby pawing at him," I reminded her. "...Is that a yes?"

"It's an _I'll think about it_."

"What'll you think about?" Garcia asked, sneaking up behind me. "Oh, and hi."

I grinned as she leaned in to kiss my cheek affectionately and took the stool beside me.

"JJ thinks I should get a dog," Emily answered, sounding skeptical. "What do you think?"

"What kind of dog?" Garcia replied immediately.

"No idea," I admitted. "Something that'll give her a run for her money, definitely."

"Not too big," Emily cautioned.

"And good with kids!"

"Kids?" Garcia laughed. "Whose?"

"Mine, someday," Emily sighed. "_Maybe._"

Garcia's grin turned mischievous now. "Oh really? And how many theoretical kids have you got running around your head with this dog? Have you bought the white picket fence yet?"

"At least two," Emily replied, surprising me. "At least one boy."

"A girl too, right?" I asked, elbowing her lightly. Then, to avoid suspicion, I added, "Penelope and I would spoil a girl rotten."

Emily smiled at me, softly, lovingly. It was just the kind of look we needed to keep hidden, I knew. That thought didn't less the need I felt to kiss her though. Thankfully Garcia was well distracted.

"And is there a theoretical father to these theoretical children?" She asked gleefully, leaving Emily to defend herself against claims of a secret (male) lover.

"Dogs live a long time," she argued. "I just want to be sure that if I ever _do_ want to reproduce before my ovaries shrivel up, I'm not going to have some temperamental bull dog roaming about the place."

"Hey, don't stereotype! Most bulldogs are sweeties!"

"I'd like a pug," I hummed out of nowhere. "Pugs are adorable."

"Pugs slobber."

"Sergio sheds."

"Sergio's _cute_."

"_Woah_. Garcia, did you hear her say that pugs aren't cute? Did you?"

I turned to my friend for support but Garcia had been distracted once again, this time by Morgan and Reid approaching. "Hey, muscles, what kind of dog should Emily get?" she called.

"German shepherd," Morgan returned off the cusp. "Reliable, loving, ready to protect you-"

"Too big," Garcia cut him off. "She wants babies."

"She wants babies?"

"At least two!"

"_Someday_," Emily groaned, throwing me a desperate look. "Doesn't everyone?!"

"I don't think Morgan does," Reid tried, causing Garcia and Morgan to burst out laughing, much to his confusion. "What?"

Garcia took pity on him. "Come on, genius. You've met his mother!"

"So what?" Reid was nonplussed.

"So my momma isn't gonna leave this earth until I've produced at least _ten_ little _grandbabies_ for her amusement," Morgan explained. "Your mom isn't the same way?"

"My mom's never even mentioned grandchildren," said Reid, a contemplative look coming over his face as if he thought maybe he should ask her.

"I wouldn't worry, Reid," Emily joked. "I'm sure she'll be begging for them by the time you've finished puberty."

As everyone laughed, I caught sight of Hotch and Rossi approaching. "Maybe we should move this to a table before we end up strung along the bar like a line of school kids."

Emily lifted my drink chivalrously and we walked off with Garcia while the boys ordered their own beers.

"So what about you, Jayj," Garcia asked as we sat down.

"What about me?" I replied.

"Kids? Your mom's dreams for you? Either, both?"

I took a moment to think about this. "Of course I want kids," I admitted, avoiding Emily's eyes. "And a boy and a girl would do me just fine, although I wouldn't mind more. As for mom... I guess her dream is that I quit this job, come home, marry a local boy, and reproduce like it's the family business."

Emily smirked at that. "Well mine doesn't care what I do as long as I don't make a spectacle of myself. What about you Pen?"

"Me?" Garcia laughed. "You already heard my fate! I'm going to have to get started pretty soon if I wanna churn out ten little tail-chasers for Momma Morgan!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

And that was how it started.

By day I was Agent Jareau, JJ to my friends. I was her colleague. We drove to work in separate cars and we drove home in the same fashion. Two cars, one home. As soon as the door closed behind us I was Jennifer, Jen, _Jenny_ if she was teasing me. I was her lover, her oneday-wife, her everything-she-needed-me-to-be and she was mine.

God, did I need her. Of course, I didn't realise quite how much until she was gone.

Just over two weeks into our experiment, Emily took me to the animal shelter. I'd been nagging her since Day 5 and I had no idea what had made her change her mind until a few days later. I was lying on the couch with Oscar-the-corgi pawing playfully at my stomach—"No dogs on the couch, Jen." "But he's not _on _the couch! He's on me!"—when Emily sat down beside me and lifted my legs into her lap. One hand stroked my calf absently as she decided how to phrase what she had to stay.

"My mother called a few days ago," she said eventually.

That made me sit up. I kept Oscar pressed to my chest defensively. "She never calls."

"Unless she wants something," Emily corrected me.

She didn't look at me but she leaned closer that she could rub Oscar's head. "You know how Hotch has given us the week off next week? She wants me to visit."

"For the whole week?" I asked, trying to hide my disappointment. We'd been looking forward to having some time to ourselves. It was getting exhausting working all day and pretending like nothing was going on between us. The facade was secure but it took everything we had to maintain it. _"We'll order takeout every other night and watch movies and stay in bed until noon. Just wait until we get that vacation,"_ she'd promised.

I watched Emily struggle with herself and couldn't bear it. Setting Oscar down onto the floor with a kiss, I turned toward her and lifted her chin gently. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," she sighed. "She's disappointed in me. What else is new?"

She was trying to hide it but it was clear that she was upset and I was honestly astounded. "Em, how could your mom possibly be disappointed in you? You're an FBI agent, part of an elite and specialised team. You save lives—"

"That's not what she's disappointed about," Emily interrupted me.

I stroked my thumb across her cheek, noticing a slight quiver in her lips. "So tell me what's wrong."

"One of her many _friends_," Emily almost hissed the word, "Saw us last Friday, kissing outside that restaurant. Of course she immediately felt the need to telephone my mother and tell her what her _scandalous_ daughter was up to." She let out a bitter laugh. "My mother has known I'm gay since I was in college. She's never liked it but she didn't make a fuss. Now her friend's found out it's like I'm some huge embarrassment. She wants me to 'snap out of it'_._"

I was lost for words, my hand falling into my lap dumbly. "Em, you can't just snap out of being gay," I managed eventually. I wanted to say _you can't just snap out of loving me_ but I was afraid of being contradicted. I knew my own mom probably wouldn't be the happiest with my decision either but I hadn't prepared myself for hearing those sentiments voiced aloud.

"It's more like she wants me to snap out of my 'selfishness', my lack of concern for politics and _her image_," Emily answered, gaining some strength back through the acidity of her words. "She found out we've got leave coming up and she as good as forced me to agree to visit her. Probably just to stop me spending all that time going out and getting myself seen with you."

I almost wanted Emily to call her mother back and tell her we'd just stay indoors all week if she wanted us out of sight so badly (we'd find enough to do) but I knew that was childishly evasive of me. If we were going to have a child together then we couldn't start getting self conscious about being seen together as a couple—outside of work obviously. And that meant Emily was going to have to talk to her mother.

"Do you want me to come?" I asked, and she shook her head quickly.

"You'd better stay and watch Oscar," she told me, nodding towards the puppy who, despite being set down several minutes ago, had chosen to lie down at my feet rather than to run off. He didn't even like being left at home while we were at work; there was no way we were going to unleash a dog-sitter on him if we didn't have to. Still, I couldn't help but feel that she'd caved on getting the puppy to distract me and it felt a little low.

"Fine," I replied, my voice coming out more clipped than I intended. "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow after work." Emily's voice was tired and I felt guilty for snapping. After all, the ambassador's disapproval must have been hurting her own daughter more than me. Even if it was hurting me more than I could have expected.

"And you'll be back...?"

"I'll try to be home by Saturday night so we at least have Sunday to ourselves." I didn't miss the way she stressed the word _home_. She was trying to appease me.

"Great," I sighed. "We'll have a whole _half_ a weekend together..."

"Jennifer—"

I shied away from the hand that brushed my arm. "Sorry— Could you just— Not right now, Em." Hating myself a little, I stood up, disrupting Oscar at my feet, and walked over to the staircase.

Emily knew better than to follow but I was glad Oscar did. He hadn't yet mastered the stairs so I waited for his little legs to carry him over and then picked him up. I broke the _No dogs in the bed _rule that night and I pretended to be asleep when Emily joined me hours later.

* * *

Dogs—like children, like relationships, and like careers in law enforcement—are not easy. But they are worth it. On the first day of Emily's absence, once I was past the stage of gloomily roaming the house, soaking up its emptiness, and had actually called to check she'd got to the Ambassador's alright, I decided to teach Oscar some tricks. Although only a few months old, the shelter had informed us that Oscar was capable of sitting, lying down, and begging. So far we had only seen evidence of the begging, and rarely when he was asked to.

That morning, I taught him "high five". The process was arduous and resulted in both of us eating ourselves to drowsiness and falling asleep on the sofa. When the phone rang, Oscar jumped off the couch like he knew it was Emily calling and she wasn't going to approve. To be fair, he had a pretty good reason to assume it was Emily calling since he hadn't met anyone else in this house yet. We hadn't even introduced him to the team.

"Hey, Jen. I've only got a minute..." was how Emily began the conversation, which didn't strike me as a good sign. "Mother is waiting for me to get dressed for dinner."

"You're going out somewhere?" I asked, trying to sound disinterested.

Emily groaned. "If only... No, we're just getting dressed up to eat by ourselves in this miserable old house. I wish I were home."

I couldn't help but soften at that. "Me too. I'm sorry for being such a bitch last night."

"Don't worry about it," Emily chuckled. "Really. It's my mother. She brings bad things out in everyone. Me, especially."

"So you haven't been won over by her fancy house and meals so good you need to wear something expensive just to appreciate then? Still planning on coming home?"

"Trust me when I say that I would much rather you and me were sitting in bed in our underwear eating Chinese food right about now," Emily answered emphatically. "God, it's so stifling here, Jen. It was better when I was a kid - at least she was never around. She's been hovering _all day_ today... _Mother- No! I __**am **__getting dressed. Don't come in! _...Seriously, Jen. I feel like I'm in prison. A really fancy prison for politicians and lawyers."

I stretched out along the couch luxuriously and let out a teasing sigh. "I was thinking about ordering pizza..."

"I hate you."

"No you don't..." I scooped Oscar up with my free hand as he began whining at my feet. "The baby says hi."

"Is he on the couch?"

"He's on me, not the couch!"

Emily's soft laughter on the other end of the line warmed me up from the inside out. "Okay," she said. "I'd better go now... I love you."

It was too soon; I felt my heart sinking. "Oh. All right. Call me tomorrow."

"I will, as soon as I can," Emily promised.

"I love you."

As she hung up the phone I looked down at Oscar's happy face and open, panting mouth.

"What on earth are we going to do all week, Osc?"

* * *

"Where'd you say Emily was?" Garcia asked distractedly as she came through the door. She had with her at least ten shopping bags, which she skilfully avoided banging against the doorframe on her way in.

"Her mother's," I answered honestly. "She finally got that puppy so she asked me to dog-sit."

Oscar practically introduced himself, running out from the living room and jumping up on Garcia, his tiny body not even reaching up to her knees when he was on his hind legs.

"Wow, he _loves_ you," I commented, impressed and a little jealous—I was used to being the fun human who let him break all the rules Emily imposed.

"Well I do tend to attract dogs," Garcia joked. "But seriously, I'm carrying like ten pounds of dog treats along with all this food and fun stuff for us, so I wouldn't feel too insecure, honey."

"Pen, you didn't have to!" I protested but Garcia only laughed me off.

"I wanted to make a good first impression, didn't I?" She pointed out, dumping her bags on the counter and leaning down to pick up Oscar. "Hello, little guy! _Hello!"_

I laughed as well as Garcia cooed at my and Emily's 'baby'. God, there was something about dogs. Having got myself well-used to having someone around to talk to and joke with and sleep pressed up against at night, Oscar was the only thing making the separation from Emily—brief as I grudgingly admitted it was—easier. Still, I had decided that tonight we both needed a little extra human company.

"When'd she get him?" Garcia asked. "I didn't think she was really going to do it."

"Mid-last week," I explained. "Took a bit of convincing but she fell in love."

Actually it had been me who'd fallen in love with Oscar; Emily had fallen in love with the way seeing him lit up my face. Still, it had taken Oscar all of about five more minutes to wriggle his way into Emily's heart, guarded as it was.

"She acts tough but she's got a mothering instinct that one," Garcia teased, as if I didn't already know.

"I think the toughness is part of that instinct," I mused, although I was hopeful Emily wouldn't take it to her mother's extreme. "You bring your PJs?"

"I did indeed! We have everything we need for a super fun girls sleepover!"

"You are a legend, Penelope."

"I try!" She laughed. "So what's got you so down in the dumps? _Uh-uh_! Don't try to hide it, sweetie. I know it can't be being forced to stay in this gorgeous place with an adorable little puppy dog, so what's up?"

"Nothing," I told her, somewhat unconvincingly. Then I tried for a half-truth. "I guess I'm concerned about Emily. Her and her mother don't get on. This trip is way out of character."

"Oh honey, she can handle herself!" Garcia promised, laying a big kiss on Oscar's head before setting him down. "Hey, I'm gonna get right into my PJs—it's almost 6pm, that's an acceptable-ish time to start PJ-partying, right? Direct me to a bathroom?"

I showed her to the second bathroom, which Emily and I tended to neglect in favour of the en suite, and I left her to get changed. A few minutes later it struck me to do the same.

After the first night I'd given up on wearing Emily's too-long pyjama pants and now slept only in her shirt but I felt that was a little more appropriate a sight for one's spouse-to-hopefully-be than it was for one's best friend. I opted instead for my own pyjamas, which I'd collected from my apartment after that first night but not worn since.

I had just pulled on the pants when I heard Garcia knocking. "You in here, Jayj?"

"Yep, one second!" I called, buttoning up my top before opening the door. "Have you chosen a movie?"

"Why are you sleeping in Emily's room?"

Okay, _not_ the response I'd been expecting. My heart nearly dropped out of my chest as I registered Penelope's gleefully suspicious tone. "_What?_ I told you, I'm dog-sitting—"

"Yeah, and there are _two _guest rooms just down the hall, yet all your stuff is in Emily's room? Why might that be, I wonder?"

"That's just where she told me to—"

Garcia was predictably unconvinced. "Don't even bother, honey! I peeked in the wardrobe while you were changing and unless Em's going to be gone a whole lot longer than a week, I'd say you have some explaining to do about just how much you've moved in!" she informed me. "And don't lie either because I saw that photo of your sister in the living room like _the minute_ I walked in. You're busted. Time to tell all!"

"There's nothing to tell," I insisted, slipping past her and down the stairs.

Garcia followed me, a maniacal grin lighting up her face. "Oh no no _no! _You do _not_ get out of this that easily!" She cried. "JJ, you _live here_. Which means that you and Emily bought a dog _together_—that's a super big commitment so don't try and tell me there's nothing going on between you!"

"That's not exactly what I— Oh Jesus..." I sighed. "Oscar, can't you distract her or something? What are you good for you stupid, adorable thing?" Oscar beamed up at me happily, tail wagging and tongue lolling out of his mouth. "Thanks a lot, baby..."

"Baby..." Garcia repeated slowly, the word striking a chord in her brain. "_Oh_ my god, all that baby talk in Oregon! You two aren't thinking of—?"

"No, Garcia, please!" I begged. "Just stop asking questions, I can't say anything!"

"Why not!" Garcia whined, grabbing my hands excitedly. "Come on, I've known you longer than you've known Emily. Show me some loyalty, girl! What's going on!?"

"All I want to do is sit down, order something in, and watch sappy movies all night—is that so much to ask?" I pleaded.

"Oh, we'll get to that, JJ! But first...!"

I sighed, long and low and defeated. "Why are you hounding me when you've obviously already figured it out?" I asked, wincing at the high-pitched squeal my best friend released in response. "I've only been living here a few weeks… We are _going_ to tell the team—"

"When?!"

"Two months and about one week," I admitted, begging her with my eyes to leave it at that. She couldn't, of course.

"Well that's specific!" she laughed. "What happens in two months and one week?"

"Pen, please don't ask me anything else. It's— it's not even certain yet." I forced myself to admit the fear that so far I'd been putting out of my mind. Maybe it wouldn't even work out…

"You've _moved in_, Jayj. You have a _dog_," Garcia reminded me. But her voice softened. "It sounds like you guys are pretty committed to me."

"I've still got my apartment," I pointed out.

"Why? What are you afraid of, sweetie?" She asked. "I mean I thought I was surprised at first but now that I think about... Well, I'm not surprised at all. You and Em just make sense."

"I'm not afraid..."

"You're hanging onto your own place even though you've moved in together and, honey, you're still so far into the closet that even _I_, the all-knowing oracle of all things knowable and unknowable, didn't peg you weren't straight." There was a slight hint of disappointment in her voice at that but I tried to ignore it. "You must be making a huge effort to keep this off the team's radar—why not just come out with it if you're not afraid? What's this two-and-something months about?"

"It's what we agreed," I admitted, shaking my head, and at that moment—blessedly—my phone rang. "That'll be Em."

Garcia let out a long breath and raised her hands understandingly. "Go, make verbal love, sweet thing. I'll set up the DVD player and order dinner."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Emily was back by Thursday evening. She didn't call, just let herself in, greeted Oscar and Sergio like she hadn't seen them in years and then did the same to me... somewhat more intimately. I'd been about to climb into the bath when she arrived and was wearing only a towel. Emily didn't try to explain what had happened with her mother or why she was back so early, she only motioned for me to go ahead and get in the bath and stripped off to join me.

I watched a shiver run through Emily's body as the hot water reached her skin and I was taken aback, as I always was, by the incredible fact that this woman was mine. Gently I turned her so that her back was to me and pulled her to sit between my legs. A soft sigh escaped her lips as I swept her hair over one shoulder and covered the other with kisses.

"Don't you want to know what happened with my mother?" she asked.

I smiled, letting her feel the broadening of my lips against her shoulder. "You're home," I whispered, stroking my hands down her smooth, warm thighs. "That's good enough for me."

"She wants to meet you," Emily said. "Properly. Outside of work."

"Is that supposed to scare me off?" I asked. "Because it won't."

"She'll probably insult you."

"Let her." I moved my lips to Emily's neck and then her ear, sucking the lobe gently into my mouth.

"She wants to do it tomorrow," Emily gasped. "My mother doesn't waste time."

"So we have something in common after all," I teased.

Then I slipped my hand between Emily's legs and all thoughts of her mother were forgotten.

* * *

Having passed a few hours decidedly avoiding the subject of what had happened at the Prentiss matriarch's estate, I sat Emily down at the kitchen counter, kissed her cheek, and began preparing dinner. Within the first week of our cohabitation experiment, I had discovered that Emily found it easiest to be open with you when you weren't looking at her. It was something I hoped we could work on in the long-run, but for now I busied myself in the kitchen and allowed her to come undone safely behind me.

"It was worse than I thought," she admitted. "I arrived on time and her housekeeper told me to wait in the drawing room—no, don't laugh, Jen. She really _does_ have a drawing room. She made me wait there for almost an hour before she had the manners to come and get me."

"Couldn't you have gone and found her?" I asked, raising my voice over the sound of the knife on the chopping board.

"The ambassador will play games with you," Emily replied. "If you know what's good for you, you let her."

"So you just sat there for an hour?" I asked disbelievingly. Emily was not one to let herself be disrespected by just anyone. Nor was I, for that matter. "You should've at least called me or something, passed the time."

"That would've been admitting she was bothering me," Emily explained. "I wanted her to know she had no power to make me feel uncomfortable. When she finally arrived she didn't acknowledge the wait. I didn't either."

"Maybe we should make _her _wait for an hour tomorrow," I suggested and when Emily didn't reply I glanced at her over my shoulder. She'd been staring deeply into a glass of red wine but she met my eye easily enough.

"The ambassador wouldn't wait five minutes for me," she explained.

I turned back to the vegetables to hide my rising anger. That wasn't acceptable. "She wouldn't leave a politician waiting. Why should she value your time any less?"

"In her eyes I embarrassed her," Emily answered. "By letting myself be seen with you in public I showed disregard for her image, her position. Especially since she wasn't forewarned. By making me wait she was showing me just how important she really is... And reminding me that I'm nothing of consequence."

"_One _person she knew saw us!" I burst out. "_One_ nosy old bat who doesn't know you _or_ me!"

"It was the wrong old bat," Emily sighed. "Apparently the ambassador had to pull some strings to get 'our little transgression' pulled from the society column before it went to print."

This was unbelievable. It was like being back home, where everybody knew everybody and rumours spread like wildfire and did just as much damage. Anonymity had been one of the major pulls of city life for me.

"Jayj...?"

Emily's voice reminded me I hadn't replied.

"So, tomorrow," I prompted her. My tone was clipped but it wasn't her I was angry at. "Is she coming here? Surely she doesn't want to meet with us in _public_."

"That's exactly what she wants," Emily answered. "A nice, civilized lunch. No raised voices, no indiscretions. Just you, me, and her, all tidily dressed and perfectly mannerly."

"But why does she want to meet me at all?" I channelled all my rage into greasing the baking tray, filling it, and seasoning the contents. I shut the oven door with an unintentional bang.

"Are you okay, Jen?"

"I'm fine," I insisted. "Go on, why does she want to meet with me if she's so convinced that nothing can happen between us? …Oscar, _out_ of the kitchen." I removed the chicken from the fridge and nudged the puppy away before he'd set a single paw on the tiles. Sergio looked down with what seemed to be a superior smirk from where he sat high on a shelf. Emily bit back a grin, lifting the rebuffed puppy into her lap.

"JJ, I may have played my mother's games but I told her in no uncertain terms that I was _not_ giving you up," she promised. "Why do you think I went down there?"

I turned around at that, cursing my raw-chicken-hands for not being able to touch her. "I know, Em, but I can't believe she was easily convinced."

Emily almost laughed, pressing a kiss into Oscar's fur. "My mother is a politician, Jayj. I gave her an ultimatum, which made her realise she didn't want an enemy who knows her as well as I do."

"Did you _threaten_ your mother for me, Emily?"

"I threatened her career."

Now Emily did laugh, properly, as I gaped at her. When I'd regained my faculties I washed my hands, dried them, and crossed the kitchen to lean across the counter, cup her cheeks, and kiss her soundly.

"What was that for?" She asked when I pulled back. It wasn't a complaint.

"For defending us," I answered honestly. _For making me feel like being with me is something worth defending._

"Jen, how could you think I wouldn't?"

Shaking my head, I had no answer. If I was honest, it was still hard for me to believe that Emily could really love me, that this was more than just a whim for her. I knew Emily wouldn't be so cruel as to string me along if she knew it wasn't going to work out, but I constantly feared she was being too optimistic, too hopeful, that one day soon she'd stop to think about everything we'd planned and realise just how ludicrous it really was, how much effort it would take. Did she realise she could lose friends over this, or that it could impact our jobs? What if they wouldn't let us work together? I thought I could deal with that, if I needed to, but could Emily? Working at the BAU was her dream—there were few people who didn't know that.

"I want you to meet _my _parents," I said suddenly. I almost surprised myself with that thought and yet it was true. Emily was important to me. Our life was important to me. And if this experiment was about figuring out whether we could make it as a couple then we had to test ourselves. I decided, at the same time, that if someone had to leave the BAU it would be me. "We've still got until Monday off. We could drive down to Pennsylvania for a few days, make a road trip of it. After we have lunch with your mother, obviously."

Emily looked hesitant but she nodded. "They won't be happy either, will they?"

"I don't know," I admitted honestly. "Jesus, Em. We're adults... We love each other, we're financially independent, and we want to start a family. Why is that so hard for people to grasp?"

Emily scratched beneath Oscar's chin pensively and met his big, knowing eyes. "People are afraid of what they don't understand," she said. "Your parents love you—if they're not immediately okay with us, they'll come around because they're good people. I think the baby will help. It'll give us all something in common to love and care about."

"You're talking like the baby's a done deal," I pointed out, searching her eyes while trying to sound casual.

"You do it too…" Emily murmured defensively. Then, to take the attention off herself she asked, "Are we having raw chicken for dinner? It's been a while since you put the vegetables in the oven."

* * *

I didn't know what to wear to meet the ambassador but if she was as well-off as I'd heard, nothing I owned would impress her anyway. I turned to Emily for guidance.

"Wear this," she told me, handing me a warm-coloured floral dress. I'd bought it years ago but I'd only worn it once recently—at a lunch we'd had, which had turned into a rather memorable walk in the park, and an even more memorable evening at home.

"I have nicer dresses," I argued but Emily silenced me with a peck on the lips.

"Wear this," she repeated. "Because I love it on you."

The simplicity and honesty in her voice was breathtaking. I pulled her closer and kissed her until she was equally breathless, then I took the dress and disappeared into the bathroom without another word.

We arrived at the restaurant five minutes early. I had combed my hair back and wore a shiny red headband that I'd tried on without any intention to actually wear it out. When Emily saw me she'd told me I had to. I was convinced I looked like a four-year-old but given how deeply she kissed me afterwards I had to admit that either I was wrong about that or my girlfriend was a paedophile. _She doesn't fit the profile_, I reassured myself, and I left the headband on.

The restaurant was the same one outside which Emily and I had been caught kissing by her mother's friend but as we arrived I understood that there wasn't likely to be a repeat performance of that. Her demeanour changed immediately upon getting out of the car. I hadn't realised just how much Emily's guard had lowered to let me in these past few weeks until I saw it re-erected in all its prior glory. Emily may have hated politicians, but she would have made an incredible one.

To my unspeakable relief, Ambassador Prentiss arrived on time. Emily and I stood when she reached our table and Emily introduced me unnecessarily.

"Mother, this is my girlfriend, Jennifer. Jennifer, this is my mother, Elizabeth Prentiss."

"Of course I remember you, Agent Jareau," the ambassador replied, shaking my hand.

"It's nice to see you again, ma'am," I greeted her politely.

Anyone else's mother would have said, "_Oh no, dear, call me Elizabeth!"_ but I got the impression that _ma'am_ suited Emily's mother just fine. She sat down and insisted on ordering both drinks and food before even hinting at our reason for being here.

"So, how long have you been dating my daughter," she finally asked, taking a long sip of the expensive red wine she had chosen.

A basket of bread sat in the middle of the table but Emily had already instructed me that her mother wouldn't think highly of me if I took any. It was disappointing—I desperately wanted something to occupy my hands with. "Almost a month, ma'am," I replied as carefully as I could.

"And you're already living together?" The ambassador gave her daughter a look that I couldn't decipher. Emily didn't react.

"We've known each other for a long time, mother," she explained. "We know what we want."

"And how does Aaron Hotchner feel about _what you want_?"

I resisted the urge to glance at Emily for instruction and instead held her mother's gaze. "We haven't told him yet," I said firmly. I wasn't going to let her takeout as an admission of guilty. "But we're planning to do so. Ambassador Prentiss, I'm serious about your daughter. I want you to know that. There aren't going to be any embarrassing public arguments or messy break ups for you to need to sweep under the rug."

"You don't know that," she dismissed me.

Emily reached for my hand across the table and stared directly into her mother's eyes. I noted the flicker of annoyance that passed through them. "Mother, I respect what you do and what it took you to achieve your position but I'm not going to stop living my life because it's inconvenient for you."

"No," agreed the ambassador. "I realise that."

Was that acceptance in her tone? I tried to keep emotion from showing on my face—it seemed to be a requirement of Prentiss-style negotiations. Still, I couldn't help but hope...

Our entrees arrived then and the ambassador asked me about my family. Speaking to her was like speaking to a prosecutor. She never asked a question she didn't already know the answer to. I beat down the self-consciousness rising in me.

"I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. Not far from Pittsburgh," I explained. "My mother is a high school teacher and my father worked as a carpenter until he hurt his back. Now he manages the business for his brother and my cousins." I fought the urge to tell her that my father's business was very well known and respected in Pennsylvania. I didn't want to sound like I was defending him.

"Your mother's a teacher," the ambassador repeated. "An admirable, if gruelling, profession."

"I imagine being an ambassador can be quite gruelling as well," I answered. My voice was hard beneath the ostensible politeness and I think it was a look of amusement that Emily's mother flashed in her daughter's direction. I wasn't used to this kind of indirect behaviour. _If you're going to laugh at me, at least do it aloud so I can call you on it._

"It can be, yes," was all Elizabeth said.

"When are you leaving for your next assignment, mother?" Emily asked, taking the pressure off me for a second.

The ambassador's small eyes swivelled toward her daughter. "I leave for Berlin in two weeks."

So that was why she was so desperate to put a lid on our relationship. She didn't want us to embarrass her while she was gone.

"Berlin was a good posting for us," Emily recalled, almost sentimentally. "And you won't be far from Austria in the winter. That'll be nice."

"You could visit," the ambassador suggested lightly. Then she looked at me, "Jennifer would be welcome too, of course. Do you ski?"

I doubted '_welcome' _was the correct word in this situation, but I didn't hesitate in replying unabashedly. "No, I don't."

"But you're athletic," she commented dismissively. "Emily, you must bring her to Austria. You can teach her to ski, I'm sure. And Berlin, well in Berlin you would be well received as a couple. The mayor of Berlin, he is a gay man."

I could tell that Emily was getting frustrated. There was a tease in the ambassador's tone. I moved my hand to the top of hers and stroked my thumb across the back gently, willing her to keep it together. This was a game.

"Have you been to Europe, Jennifer?"

"Only briefly," I answered, but I was sure she already knew that. "I helped Emily settle into Paris a few years ago."

"So you did." The ambassador's tone was contemplative. "Paris is lovely at Christmas."

"It's a beautiful city."

"You could get married in France," Emily's mother pointed out. "You can't do that in Washington, or Virginia. Certainly not home in Pennsylvania."

"Mother, what are you trying to say?" Emily sighed. "Jennifer and I aren't going anywhere. We have friends here, good jobs, a nice place with a dog and a cat and room for a baby. We're not going to run away to live abroad or keep out of sight. Surely you understand that."

"I was just making a suggestion," the ambassador replied tartly.

The waiter interrupted us then to take our plates, asking Emily if she was finished. I noticed that although she'd been quiet, Emily had barely touched the food on her plate. She nodded and thanked the waiter apologetically. It had to be nerves.

"That the problem, mother," she said, once he'd left. "You need to stop making suggestions about how I live my life. I'm not a bad daughter. I've always done everything you wanted of me. Now I have someone who makes me happy and I won't let you bully her like you bully me."

"Emily, I'm—"

"I know," Emily cut her off. She seemed to have relinquished all attempts to play her mother's game or act like it didn't bother her. "You're _disappointed_ in me. I'm sorry. I wish you weren't but I can't change that."

Something flashed behind the ambassador's eyes at that moment. It was a new emotion for her, one I wasn't prepared for and wasn't sure how to interpret. "I won't have the media making a scandal of my daughter," she said tersely. "I can see I'm not going to change your mind, so we're going to have to compromise."

"Is this the kind of compromise where you get exactly what you want?" Emily asked and I squeezed her hand. She wouldn't look at me, so I made eye contact with her mother instead.

"We can compromise," I told her diplomatically, "Within reason."

The ambassador's mouth was a straight line but I could swear there was a smile in her eyes, a glimmer of approval. I tried not to read too far into it. "I'm throwing a party, Sunday-week at 8 pm, before I leave for Berlin. I would like you both to attend and to introduce yourselves as a couple. Until then I want you to be subtler in public. If this is going to come out, it shouldn't be in a gossip column.

Revealing our relationship at a party in just under two weeks would be a public commitment only half way through the time specified for our experiment. Yet when I looked at Emily, she was watching me closely. I understood that she was leaving the decision to me. Running my thumb reassuringly against the back of her hand, I signalled my agreement. Emily told the ambassador we'd be there.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"It'll take us about five hours once we leave the house—Yes, mom, remember I told you I was bringing someone? Yes... _Come on_, at least wait 'til we get there to interrogate me! No, mom, it's _not_ Derek Morgan. It's really not. I'd tell you if it was! ...No, let it go! Five hours, that's all I ask!"

I threw an exasperated grin at Emily who was trying to smother a laugh behind her hand.

"Yeah, mom. I promise we'll drive safe," I said into the phone, poking my tongue out at my girlfriend. "We're just waiting for our friend to come pick up the dog… Yeah, I know I'm not allowed dogs at my apartment. I— Well, no, I haven't exactly been living at my apartment. ..._Mom_, you'll meet h— _them_ in five hours or so. Promise I'll tell you everything then! I gotta go, okay? _I love you too._ Bye."

Emily laughed outright as I hung up the phone, coming over to link her arms around my waist. She dropped her forehead to mine and smiled. "So, this is it, huh? Mom has no clue you like women?"

I shook my head honestly. "How could she?" I asked. "I never loved a woman before you."

"I might be worried about that," Emily admitted, "…If you weren't so darn transparent." She pressed her lips softly against mine but quickly deepened the kiss, slipping her hands from around my waist to trail down my sides, her fingertips lightly brushing my thighs. Sliding her mouth down my neck, she pressed her hands into the back pockets of my jeans and bit down on my pulse point. She pulled away the second I let a gasp escape my lips. "The whole world can see when you're turned on," she teased.

I swatted her away, hiding a smile, and checked once again that all of Oscar's things were in order. Penelope was going to drop in every day to check on Sergio and top up his food and water, but she'd decided to take Oscar back to her apartment instead of staying here. Almost as soon as she entered my mind I heard the doorbell ring. Emily went to answer it while I remained in the kitchen, fanning the blush from my cheeks. _That woman..._

"Hiya, princess!" I heard Garcia exclaim from the threshold. "I see you survived your trip home."

"I went to visit my mother," Emily corrected her. "_This_ is my home."

"Ah, but it's not _just_ your home, is it?" Garcia giggled and I poked my head out of the kitchen guiltily as Emily whirled around to face me.

"Oh yeah," I said lamely. "I forgot. Garcia figured us out while you were gone."

"She _figured us out_?" Emily repeated. "How?"

"It wasn't hard," Garcia declared, walking past Emily into the living room. "This photo right here? This is JJ's sister, Rosaline. I noticed it right away when I came to visit. Maybe she could explain staying here with the whole dog-sitter ruse, but what dog-sitter moves in personal photos, huh? And then there was the fact that she was sleeping in your room, not the guest room, plus the fact that you two are… Well, I always thought you were like sisters, but it's not exactly unsurprising that you'd be more." She looked a little piqued now. "I would've suspected it sooner if either of you had thought to _tell_ me you were gay!"

I bit back the protestation that I wasn't _really_ gay. I was going to have to get comfortable with the assumption and the label. "Hey," I argued instead. "Emily didn't tell _me_ either until about a month ago. But see, Em? I didn't tell Garcia—she guessed!"

Emily looked unconvinced but nodded anyway. To Garcia she said, "This is all Oscar's stuff and, of course, here's the little devil himself. Are you sure you're going to be fine until Sunday?"

"Princess, I'm going to have a ball with this little one," Garcia promised. "I even got Morgan to agree to come walk him with me."

I gawped. "You didn't tell him about us, did you?"

Garcia laughed. "Sweetheart, I may be all-knowing but Derek Morgan certainly is not," she replied easily. "Trust me, that dumb little cutie has no clue. I just told him Oscar was Emily's new dog and that she was going out of town for a few days. I didn't even tell him you were going too."

"Thanks, Garcia," Emily sighed, stuffing the car keys in her back pocket and lifting up Oscar's things. I took this as a cue to grab our bags as well. "It's not that we don't want the team to know…"

"I know, I know," Garcia assured her. "You do it at your own pace. In the meantime, let's can get all this stuff loaded up so you can hit the road!"

* * *

"CDs are in the glove box," Emily directed me as we hopped in the car. "Afraid it's only music. I can't do audiobooks since I had to road trip it with Reid… There's only so long you can listen to Peter Coyote reading the Foundation trilogy in a confined space before you start to lose your head."

"Music is fine," I laughed, flipping through the cases and selecting one. "Hopefully five hours in a confined space with me won't have the same effect."

"As long as we don't have to talk the whole way," Emily answered, pulling out of the driveway. "Turning up to your parents' house hoarse and exhausted mightn't make for the best first impression."

There was a hint of anxiety behind the joke. "They're going to love you, Em," I promised. "Maybe they won't love _us_ right away, but they'll come around."

"Most people who don't come out in their teens come out during college," Emily reminded me. "Jayj, you're thirty-five. This is going to completely blindside them."

I felt my stomach knot uncomfortably. "Hey, if you don't want to do this—"

"I'm sorry. I do."

"What is it then?" Out of nowhere, I was feeling vulnerable and I didn't like it at all. "You should probably tell me before we're five hours out of DC…"

"It's— Don't worry about it," Emily backtracked. "Seriously, it's fine. I'm sure everything will be fine…"

"The more times you say the word fine, the more worried I'm going to get." I watched her hands tighten on the wheel and turned the music down slightly. "Emily?"

She glanced at me quickly, then directed her eyes back to the road. "I guess I just— My mother's always been upset with me about something. I think she still resents me for forcing her onto maternity leave all those years ago. But you've got a real family. A mom, a dad, an uncle, cousins, nieces and nephews..."

"We've got a ghost," I added softly, referring to Rosaline. "No family is perfect, Em. There's a reason I left home and there's a reason I'll be coming back here after the weekend's over. _With you_. No matter what happens with my parents, you and I are leaving there together and coming back to our place, our dog, our cat, our jobs… everything we have together. And at least I won't have to stress anymore about how they're going to react."

"Maybe I should stay at a motel, Jen. Just in case."

I sighed. "I'm not going to stop you if that's what you want but I told mom I was bringing my partner down. She's going to expect us to be sharing my room and if she's got a problem with you being a woman, well, dammit, she can just deal with it for a few nights. It's not like we're going to be having sex with her lying next door."

"Thank god you're not a kinky one, Jareau," Emily chuckled weakly, causing me to grin.

"Oh, I'm plenty kinky," I retorted. "But we'll save all that for when we're back under our own roof if you don't mind, Agent Prentiss."

* * *

"Honey, you made it sound like you were bringing a boy home," was how my mom answered the door. She collected herself quickly though, wiping her hands on her apron before holding one out to Emily to shake. "I'm sorry, darling, how rude. You know how it is—I'm getting old. This one needs to find a man soon if I'm going to get any grandkids outta her. I'm Sandy Jareau. Jenny's mom."

"Emily Prentiss. It's good to meet you, ma'am," Emily replied in her most diplomatic fashion. Oh no, I was going to have to explain to her that we didn't play mind games in this house. When my mom told you to call her Sandy, she wanted you to call her Sandy, to help her out in the kitchen and tell her if she's got flour on her shirt. No one was getting left in the drawing room to wait for an hour here.

"Sandy," my mom corrected Emily predictably. "I've actually heard quite a bit about you now I know your name!"

"You're not getting old at all, mom," I told her, noticing the sparkle in her eyes.

"Yet you wait a beat longer to say so every time you visit, Jenny," she quipped. "You're the profiler. So what's that mean? …Hey, you two get in off the doorstep already! Where are my goddamn manners today? _Billy Jean, your cousin's home! Charlie, that's your daughter at the door—come say hi! _You girls can go on and sit down. Emily, do you drink coffee, darling? Or would you rather tea?"

"Coffee would be amazing," Emily sighed and I reached over to squeeze her knee lightly.

"This one drove the whole way from Washington, mom. She wouldn't let me take the wheel once."

"She's like your father then," mom laughed. "Stubborn. I like her."

As she disappeared into the kitchen Emily gave me a sly look.

"They do say a girl tends to marry someone like her dad…" she hinted.

"I think that's more to do with heterosexual couples but I'll take it," I replied, blushing a little. _I can't call myself heterosexual anymore, _I thought. That was still a little strange.

My dad shifted through the doorway then, followed by my cousin Billy Jean. Dad was a slow and steady sort but Billy came in at a run. I stood so I could catch her properly—she'd always been a bit of a human missile, ever since we were kids.

"Jenny, it's been so damn long!" she cried. "Whyn't you ever come home anymore, huh? Amy's been missing you!"

"Where is Amy?" I asked, looking over Billy's shoulder hopefully. "I was hoping she'd be here when we arrived."

"Oh, you know those preteen girls. She's hanging by the corner shop with some of her girlfriends, trying to be cool and that," she explained. "She'll be back soon enough."

"Hey there, button," dad greeted me once Billy had released me. "It's good to see you. But I'm afraid we're neglecting your guest."

Emily shot to her feet at that. "It's nice to meet you, sir!" she blurted out. "My name is Emily Prentiss."

"Well then, Emily-Prentiss," dad chuckled, stringing her name into a single word. "It's nice to meet you too, I'll say. Jenny talks about you sometimes—if she ever remembers to call us." The last part was directed at me with a bit of a smirk. "Charles Jareau. I'm Jenny's daddy. You can go on an' call me Charlie. ...Your mom in the kitchen, button?"

"Making coffee," I confirmed.

"I'd better go make myself useful then, huh?" dad said, raising his eyebrows and tapping his hands lightly against his legs. "'Scuse me, girls."

As he disappeared into the kitchen, Billy Jean fixed me with a grin before introducing herself to Emily. "Hi there, Emily. I'm Billy Jean—Billy's just fine though. You a friend of Jenny's?"

"Yes," Emily replied somewhat uncertainly. She clearly didn't want to be the one to out me but I'd already decided that Billy would be the easiest to begin with.

"Actually, Billy, Emily's my girlfriend," I explained as casually as I could.

Billy Jean let out a long whistle. "_Wooow_, Jen. DC's sure changed you, huh?"

I didn't know how to take that but at least she didn't seem upset or angry.

"You here to tell Sandy and Charlie?" she asked and I nodded, taking Emily's hand meaningfully.

"We're hoping to start a family," I admitted. "…Have you any idea how mom's going to react? Or dad, for that matter?"

"I honestly don't know, sweetie," Billy Jean answered, a little more seriously. "But I'll tell ya, if you want Sandy to be happy for you, better tell her about the baby first. She's been chatting all week about you bringin' some guy down and how she was finally gonna get those grandkids off you. Specially since… you know…"

I nodded, avoiding Emily's gaze. I'd explain later.

"Well, Emily-Prentiss, welcome to East Allegheny," Billy declared, nodding her head in acceptance. "You a bit quiet, but y'seem nice enough. Just make sure you're taking good care of Jenny, right? Always thought it'd be a man I'd have to make this speech to, but I guess the principle of the thing's the same. If you break her heart—"

"Billy," I interrupted as mom and dad re-entered with coffee and biscuits. She shut her mouth obediently.

"Here we go." Mom sighed her great domestic martyr sigh. She liked you to know she'd gone to trouble but also that she'd been happy to do it. "Emily, I didn't ask how you take your coffee. Can I get you some milk or sugar?"

"Oh no, ma'am. Just black is fine," Emily answered as we all sat down around the coffee table.

Billy Jean shot me a smirk which I took to mean she was amused by Emily's manners.

"Darling, nobody calls me ma'am," mom insisted. "Kids at the school call me _miss_ but you're a bit past that, I think."

Dad sat in his customary armchair, while mom took a seat on the sofa opposite us.

"Sorry, Sandy," Emily replied a little uncomfortably.

"You're very elegant," mom told her, modifying her own posture slightly to match Emily's straight back. "You didn't grow up in the country, did you?"

"No …Sandy," Emily answered hesitantly. "My mother travelled a lot for work. I spent most of my childhood in Rome."

"Most of it?" dad asked, raising an eyebrow. "Where else?"

"Here and there…" Emily answered. She lowered her head, sounding embarrassed.

"And do you speak Italian?" dad asked. "We have a very good Italian restaurant in town."

"Joey's isn't a _restaurant_, Charlie," mom chided him. To Emily she said, "It's more like a cafe."

Billy snorted. "More like a diner."

"I like Joey's," dad argued.

"You liking a place doesn't make it a _restaurant_, Charlie. Call it what it is."

"They do really good pizza," dad insisted. "So do you, Emily? Speak Italian?"

"Yes, Charlie," Emily replied dutifully. The way she said his name, like mom's, made it sound like a title. She may as well have been saying _sir_ and _ma'am_.

"Actually, Emily speaks a lot of languages," I piped up, trying to bring her further into the conversation. "Italian, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek."

"Jayj, don't…"

Emily spoke quietly, avoiding my eyes. Taking a moment to really look at her I could see that she was tense. Her back was straight but her head tipped forward. Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap. I realised that talking about all of the places she'd been was only making her feel like more of an outsider. I bit my lip, unsure how to make her comfortable.

It didn't help when my dad jokingly asked, "You've been to so many places, Emily-Prentiss. What on earth are you doing in East Allegheny?"

"I asked her to come," I quickly said, placing my hand over Emily's. "I wanted you all to meet her."

The look on my parents' faces was one of total incomprehension. They may as well have asked, "W_hy?"_

Blessedly, at that moment Amy bounded in the door. "Whose car's in the driveway?" she chattered and then, upon seeing me, she squealed. "_Aunty Jen, you came!_"

I swallowed the lump in my throat painfully. "Sure did, sugar," I replied, climbing to my feet to give her a tight hug. She was as bright-eyed as her mother. "How's it hanging?"

"I'm Middle School now," Amy declared. "_Sixth_ grade. Cool, huh?"

"Very," I encouraged her. "Amy, this is my friend Emily."

Amy barely glanced at Emily, who smiled weakly, before turning back to me. "She's pretty. Is she in the FBI too?"

"Yep."

Now Amy turned to Emily properly as if sizing her up. "Show me your badge."

"Please," Billy Jean chimed on her daughter's behalf.

"Please," Amy repeated with a jerky nod. "Will ya?"

Emily reached into her purse obligingly and pulled out her badge.

"Flip it," Amy instructed. "Be all... _Emily-what's-your-name, FBI."_ She flipped her hair too, for dramatic effect.

Now Emily was starting to look more comfortable. She probably could have done without the audience, but she pulled off a very impressive introduction, pleasing Amy immensely.

"That's _so_ cool," she gushed. I felt almost left out.

"Hey, you've seen my badge before," I pointed out, sitting back down next to Emily as Amy dropped herself onto the couch opposite, next to mom.

"But I know you," Amy dismissed me, reaching forward to grab a handful of biscuits from the coffee table before crossing her legs up underneath her. "Emily's all... dark and mysterious!"

"Very mysterious," mom agreed with a twinkle in her eye. "How many languages can you speak again, Emily?"

"I'm not very good at all of them," Emily admitted. "Jayj made it sound like I was fluent…"

"She practically is," I cut in. "I've heard her speak Russian, Italian, French, and Arabic. I'm sure she's just as good at the other two."

Amy's eyes were wide and admiring.

"Jayj, you heard me speak Russian _badly_," Emily almost pleaded.

"Communicably," I compromised. "That woman understood what you were saying."

"Barely!"

I smiled as Emily laughed. She was so gorgeous when she did that and now everyone in the room could see it. As she became aware of their gazes, she smiled bashfully, but it was too late. The ice had been broken.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN./ For Grace, before she goes on holidays :) –Bec xx**

**Chapter 6**

"She's regal for a mouse," mom commented as I helped her prepare dinner.

It was oddest thing I'd ever heard her say and I stopped chopping to hear her explanation. "She's what?"

"Regal," mom repeated. "The way she holds herself is very… regal. But she's so quiet. Reserved. She seemed relieved when you suggested she take Amy out for ice cream."

"She's better with kids," I explained. "Don't get me wrong, she's not socially stunted or anything. And nobody we work with would even _think_ of calling her a mouse. She's really intelligent, articulate, diligent, strong-willed, even fiery... She can hold her own against the worst of the worst—criminals and politicians alike. It's being around real, loving families that she's not used to."

"She mentioned her mother before. Does she have any other family?" mom asked. Her back was to me as she stirred a pot on the stove and I suddenly realised from whom I'd inherited my technique of questioning Emily whilst cooking.

"No, it was just her and her mom as far as I know," I answered. "And her mom wasn't around much either."

Mom hummed understandingly. "She must've been pretty important to warrant all that moving around."

"She was—still is."

"Have you met her?"

I couldn't help the laugh that tumbled from my throat. Oh yeah, I'd met her. "She's a peach," I replied and mom didn't miss the sarcasm.

"We'd better make Emily feel welcome then."

For a while we were silent, then mom lifted the pot off the stove and walked up behind me, stilling my hand on the knife. "You may as well come out with it, Jenny. I know what this is all about."

Setting the knife aside, I closed my eyes and focused on my mother's thumb gliding across the back of my hand. I took a deep breath. "Mom, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise to me, Jen. Please don't," mom entreated me and dread settled deep in my stomach as tears choked her voice.

"But I know it's not what you and dad wanted for me."

"I mean it, Jenny. Don't you dare apologise." Mom's tone was unyielding even if the voice behind it wavered. "Emily's a good girl. Modest, humble. She would've done better in a town like this. You… you would've done better out in the world. I always knew that, even when you were a girl. I never could bring myself to leave though."

I swallowed tightly, turning in my mother's arms to meet her eyes. "Are you okay with this, mom?"

"Sweetheart, I will be," mom promised, raising a hand to cup my cheek. "I can see you care about her and, bless her, she looks like she needs someone who'll do that right…"

"I love her," I blurted out. "And mom, it's not just her who needs me. I need her too."

Mom laid a kiss on my cheek softly and used her thumb to wipe a tear I didn't realise had fallen. I leaned into her hand and inhaled the familiar scent of her powder mixed in with the smells from the kitchen. If I closed my eyes I could've been eleven years old, standing in this kitchen with my mom, mourning my sister...

"I need you too, Jenny," mom whispered. "Don't go leaving me now, will you?"

I knew she didn't mean leaving for DC.

"Mom, I'm not Ros," I promised, and she nodded uncertainly.

"I know. I know you're not, Jen..." Mom's voice trailed off and it seemed for a moment like there was something she wasn't telling me. I did my best not to push.

"Let's finish up dinner," I suggested. "We can both calm down a bit and eat and I'll talk to daddy later."

"I don't need to make up the camp bed for her, do I?" Mom asked, giving one loud and efficient sniff before moving away to place the pot back on the stove. She didn't meet my eyes.

"No, mom. Emily will sleep in with me."

* * *

When Emily returned from getting ice cream with Amy both of them were glowing. That sight alone made everything else endurable. I knew Amy wasn't too much younger than Carrie was. During that case I'd seen that Emily could be comforting as a mother, soft and loving. Now I saw she could also be fun and open. Not that I didn't know that.

It was my parents and Billy Jean who were surprised. Emily didn't withdraw back into her shell when mom and I brought dinner out. If anything, she blossomed further once she'd had a couple of drinks. Before long she was listening to the raucous stories of my dad's youth and laughing as loudly as any bloke down the pub. Dad, meanwhile, was thoroughly enjoying his captive audience. He hadn't had anyone new to tell these stories to in quite some time.

"Tell me what Jenny was like as a kid," Emily begged as he wrapped up yet another tale of his own childhood. I'd noticed that the more time she spent around my family, the more she called me _Jenny_. She was acclimatising to the house and its occupants' mannerisms—it was probably a skill she'd acquired from travelling.

"Jenny…" dad repeated with a wink in my direction. "She was always the troublesome one of the two, but Lord bless her, if she could convince Ros to join in on her schemes, they were a force to be reckoned with. And you, Billy, when it was the _three_ of you...!"

"We were devils," Billy laughed. "Oh, we terrorised the place."

"The principal at the school has been there nearly forty years now," mom put in. "She _still_ has my phone number tacked to her wall. Not because I work there—I never did 'til the girls left school. No, she needed it well within reach so she could ring me daily with tales of Jenny's exploits!"

"If you could get a criminal record for general naughtiness," dad declared, "They would never have let her into the FBI."

"What the hell was she up to?" Emily asked, staring at me with big, bright eyes. Dad clapped her on the back cheerfully, as if to convey his approval of her casual phrasing.

"What _wasn't _she up to," mom moaned good-humouredly. "But then what could they do? She got straight A's and she was captain of the soccer team—everybody loved her. The principal included!"

"Once," Amy piped up. "Mom and Aunty Jenny filled like fifty water balloons with cream—"

"Eighty," Billy interjected, exaggerating. "It was definitely nearer eighty."

"—And Aunty Jenny took her mom's car and—"

"I didn't take the car, Ros did!" I inserted, but it didn't have the same effect as Billy's correction.

No one laughed. Billy looked at me oddly. "Ros wasn't involved in this one."

"Yes, she was," I told her. "Ros took the car and dropped me at the school. Then she—"

"Ros _wasn't_ there, Jen." Billy's voice was firmer now. "She was already messed up by then. She didn't want to help."

"She did," I insisted. The cracking of my voice signalled a change in the mood around the table. "She was. It was the last time she was interested in our pranks before—"

"That's enough," dad said quietly. Nothing else. Just, _that's enough_, and we all fell silent. I'd interfered with the sacred canon of Stories About Rosaline, I realised, and now everybody was on edge.

"Emily I bet you had quite a childhood in Rome," Billy choked out, still staring at me.

"Not really," Emily answered and, although I knew she had many great stories, I didn't have the energy to prompt her.

"We've had a long drive," I said, meeting no one's gaze. "I think we're ready for bed."

"Sandy, did you get the camp bed out for Emily?" dad asked.

Damn it... I'd forgotten about that.

"Go on," mom said, surprising me. "Don't worry about it. I'll explain."

"Explain what?" Dad asked and Billy chose that moment to excuse herself with Amy, thanking mom and I for the meal.

"Go on to bed, girls," mom insisted. Then to dad, "_Later_, Charlie."

I nodded to Emily, we thanked mom, said goodnight to dad, and we left.

When I was a kid I would've sat by my door and tried to listen in on the grown ups talking. Now I wanted to be anywhere but here. I didn't want to hear what they really thought about me. I thought maybe Emily and I should have stayed at a motel after all...

"What happened just now?" Emily asked, watching as I powered through the process of changing into my pyjamas and turning down the bed. I didn't want to talk about it but I forced myself to look at her, to at least explain after all the discomfort she'd pushed through on my behalf today.

"It's almost Rosaline's anniversary," I told her. "That's why they're all messed up in there. Not that it's ever easy for them, but especially now... I don't know. They pretend they're okay but they never let go. I had to."

"You mean the anniversary of the day she killed herself?"

Emily was probably the only person under this roof to ever put it so bluntly. I nodded, unable to speak. I guess being in this house again was affecting me too.

Emily changed thoughtfully and together we crept down the hall to brush our teeth and then crept back to my bedroom. It was eerily quiet. I knew from growing up in this room just what kind of sounds to be worried about. After dinner the TV should be on—it wasn't. I should've been able to hear mom or dad washing up in the kitchen—I couldn't. I should've been able to hear muted chatter and although I knew mom and dad had to be talking about Emily and I, I heard nothing.

Emily led me away from the door and pulled me into bed. She drew me close, into the circle of her arms, and rested her chin on top of my head.

God, mom had no idea, absolutely no idea, how much I really needed this woman beside me. Only her touch could soothe the hidden terrors this house held for me. I kissed her softly, chastely, and then buried my head in her chest, wrapping my arms tight around her torso.

"You told your mom about us," Emily gathered, speaking quietly. I felt her breath rustle my hair and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. "And she's explaining to your dad right now?" I nodded again and she held me tighter.

Now I did hear voices, soft but tense. I heard dad's voice, low and gruff. Individual words were indistinguishable. They died away briefly. Then I heard the doorknob turn. I sat up quickly but the door didn't open. Footsteps receded. I heard a door close down the hall. Another set of footsteps soon followed. Mom and dad going to bed. I sank back into Emily's arms.

"It's okay," she whispered. "JJ, I am so proud of you..."

* * *

I didn't think I could bear eating breakfast with the family and so, knowing they wouldn't be up until after eight, Emily and I crept into the kitchen in our pyjamas not long after seven. She fetched the paper in and I made us a simple breakfast of toast, jam, and orange juice. As we ate in silence I shifted my chair close to hers and leaned into her, reading the paper over her shoulder. She placed an arm around me and gave me a soft, reassuring kiss.

"Does anyone do the crossword in this house?" She asked.

"My dad."

Emily nodded. "I won't touch it then," she said, but I knew she was working out the answers in her head. It made me smile. We made a game of it, competing for imaginary points in whispers. By the time we finished I was feeling far calmer. Unfortunately it was also after 8 o'clock. Mom padded silently into the room just as Emily pressed her lips to mine: a congratulatory kiss. I caught a shadow moving in my periphery and pulled away.

"Mom—"

Emily's arm fell from around my shoulder and I swallowed guiltily.

"It's okay," mom promised, raising her hands in a gesture of peace. She trod more confidently now that we'd seen her and came up behind me, dropping a kiss to the base of my neck. "I hope you slept well, Emily."

"Yes, thank you, Sandy," Emily replied hesitantly. "Can I make you a cup of coffee?"

Mom looked surprised, probably because this was, of course, her house. As the earliest riser the task of coffee-making usually fell to her. I locked eyes with mom. She seemed to understand Emily's need to do something to show her gratitude and so she nodded. "If you like. I take it white, no sugar though."

Emily appeared relieved to have something to do with her hands, a chance to turn her back on us for a moment.

"Are you working today?" I asked mom.

"Afraid so," she answered. "I called in sick yesterday so I could meet you when you arrived. I'm working the rest of the week. Still, I don't have any classes to teach until ten today, so I'm not in a hurry."

"What do you teach?" Emily asked, turning to face us and leaning back against the counter as the coffee brewed.

"English, history, geography sometimes," mom replied vaguely. "Students, mostly."

I chuckled. Same old mom. "Sorry about last night," I apologised. "I didn't mean to put everyone on edge like that."

"Honey, we're always on edge this time of year," mom said, confirming my suspicions. "Only this year it's worse because of Josephine."

I tilted my head slightly and waited for my mother to explain.

"Josephine, one of the seniors I teach—she tried to kill herself a few weeks ago." Mom's voice was calm, faraway. She sounded almost casual but I knew that was just how she was dealing with it.

"Tried to?" I repeated. "She's okay?"

"She's alive," mom sighed. _Okay_ was evidently an overstatement.

Emily returned to the table with a pot of coffee and a few mugs. As she added milk and stirred, mom looked on sadly.

"You have lovely hands," she said. "Very elegant. I told you she was elegant, Jenny. Regal, almost. Yes, regal..."

Emily seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before pushing the coffee across and resting a hand on my mother's shoulder. The two of them locked eyes and mom smiled slowly before Emily sat back down.

"You're very beautiful together," she said. "You and my Jenny. Like a painting."

I pulled Emily's hand into my lap for support. Emily used her free one to expertly pour herself a cup of coffee.

"We're thinking of trying for a baby, mom. Maybe in a couple months time." The words were like magic in my mouth. "Will said he'd help."

"I always liked Will," mom mused, raising her mug just to inhale the scent of her too-hot coffee. "He was very sweet, but even your father didn't think he was right for you. I'm glad he's doing okay."

"So am I," I said honestly. I'd called him a few times while Emily was away and I was alone in the house. He'd been happy for us, repeating his offer.

"But a baby," mom breathed. "You have no idea how long I've waited to hear those words out of your mouth, Jenny."

"Since I learned to talk, I'll bet," I replied with a smile.

"You'll be a great mother, sweetie," mom promised. "And so will Emily, I gather, from the shine Amy's taken to her. You better bring the little one down to visit its grandma or I might have to move to DC."

"I wouldn't mind," I laughed but mom shook her head.

"I have my students," she reasoned with herself. "Josephine, that girl at the school. She wrote her suicide letter to me. Imagine, Jen—me. Not her mom or her daddy, not her friends. It was me she didn't wanna disappoint." Her voice was still even, quiet, but I was ready for her to break down. I exchanged a look with Emily, who nodded. Mom only took a sip of her coffee. She was stronger than I remembered. "It was the first time I'd read one of those notes since Rosaline died… Anyway, Josephine's gone now—from school, I mean. Her parents couldn't handle it. They sent her up to DC to stay with an aunt. I gave her your number, sweetie. For emergencies. I guess she hasn't called."

"Do you have her number, mom? I can call her when I get back, if you like? See how she's doing?"

Mom nodded distractedly and stood up to find it. Emily squeezed my hand and, as mom scribbled down the girl's number for me and slid it across the table, dad entered the room. I guessed he'd been in the bedroom fighting the alluring smell of coffee brewing for the past half hour.

"Good morning, Jenny, Emily," he said gruffly.

Emily stood up immediately and retrieved another mug from the cupboard, pouring my dad a coffee. She must have noted how he took it yesterday, because she made it so perfectly that he couldn't help but watch with curiosity in his eyes.

"Is that some profiler trick?" he asked. "Knowing how people take their coffee?"

"It's the first thing they teach us," Emily answered. She was joking, but cautiously.

"As it should be," was all dad said for a moment. Then, out of the blue, "So you're serious about Jenny, are you, Emily? Jenny's obviously damn serious if she's bringing you to meet us."

"They want to have a baby, Charlie," mom put in, her eyes glistening. "Wouldn't that be amazing? Having a baby in the house again?"

Dad looked between Emily and I searchingly and then spread his hands. "We haven't had a baby to coddle since Amy was born and she's a little lady now," he admitted. Then he put his coffee cup down and reached out to shake Emily's hand across the table. "You better treat her right, Emily-Prentiss. 'Cause if I find out you don't—"

"Dad, that's not necessary!" I interrupted but Emily was smiling. She shook dad's hand eagerly.

"Of course it's necessary," she insisted. "He's your dad. ...Charlie, I swear, I would rather die than hurt your daughter."

The way she said it with such a straight face, so unironically… Honestly, it made me feel a little weak at the knees. I was glad I was sitting down.

"That's settled then," dad agreed. "Now I trust you're planning on getting married."

Emily blushed deeply. "I... Well, we can't right now. But when we can..." I smiled as she stared down into her lap.

"It's on the agenda," I promised dad, nudging Emily with my shoulder.

"Good, that's settled. Now I thought, today—since Sandy'll be at work—you, me, and Emily could…"

Dad's plans were interrupted by Emily's cell ringing. She reached for it quickly, apologising as she did.

"Hotch? No— What, a case?" Emily met my eye uncertainly and bit her lip. "An hour? That's going to be difficult, sir. ...Well, JJ and I are in Pennsylvania."

I groaned quietly. _"Work,"_ I mouthed at my parents. Dad nodded and took his coffee out into the living room without further ado. Mom followed, giving me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as she passed.

Emily watched them leave. "Hotch, I'm putting you on speaker," she said once we were alone.

"Hotch, it's JJ," I called as she did so.

Hotch didn't greet me back. "Did you drive to Pennsylvania?" he asked, clearly wanting to move quickly and irritated by our absence.

"Took us just over five hours," I confirmed. "Where's the case?"

"Cleveland," Hotch replied. "You're better off driving than coming back here. Should I ask what's in Pennsylvania for you two?"

"You remember giving us the week off, don't you?" I asked, a little defensively. "I have family here."

"Emily doesn't."

I baulked. "...Are you trying to say something, Hotch? Because, no offense, but what we choose to do outside of work hours isn't really your business."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line during which I conscientiously avoided Emily's sceptical eyes, her eyebrow raised in askance.

"You'll miss the briefing," Hotch continued finally, sounding as oblique as ever. "I'll have Garcia email you the files. Get to the precinct as soon as you can make it. We shouldn't arrive too long before you if you leave now."

"Yes, sir," I answered, belatedly compensating for my rudeness, and he hung up before I could say anything else. "…Three months," I sighed, still staring at the phone. "All we wanted was three months to figure this out without the complication of the team knowing…"

"We're supposed to be off until Monday," Emily replied, finally sounding as annoyed as I felt. "This wasn't our fault. It's not like we've been acting differently at work."

Emily's phone pinged then and I felt mine buzz in my pocket as Garcia sent through the files.

"Right," I said. "Let's just hope Hotch sees it that way."


	7. Chapter 7

**AN./ Proof that reminding me every so often to continue your favourite stories can be effectual! :) You can thank bkwrmchar for this update –Bec xx**

**Chapter 7**

"You drove yesterday. I'm driving," I declared, once Emily and I had said goodbye to my parents. "Gimme the keys."

"I don't mind driving," Emily argued, gripping her keys tighter defensively.

"Come on, you're as bad as Garcia with that car. Just let me drive!"

"JJ, I told you I'm fine—"

"For me?" I pleaded, knowing it'd give her pause. "How are we supposed to share a baby when you won't even let me drive your car?"

Emily knew better than to argue with that logic. With a groan, she dropped the keys into my open palm and I gave her a quick peck on the lips in thanks.

"Read me the file," I directed her once we were a few minutes on the road. "What have we got?"

"A serial in Cleveland," Emily recited dutifully. "Four bodies, so far one survivor. Another woman fitting the profile went missing this morning."

"Tell me about the survivor."

"Eyes on the road," Emily drawled as I tried to sneak a glance at the file over her shoulder. "All six women are brunette caucasians in their mid-to-late thirties. The abduction sites are varied but they're all stops in the usual routines of the victims."

"So he probably watched them," I supplied with a nod.

"The survivor is a woman named Tara Winters, 38. The unsub blitzed her outside her son's preschool. Security cameras picked up the vehicle but not the unsub. It was a blue porsche belonging to the previous victim. Locals put an APB out and when highway patrol caught it he shot his way out and hijacked another vehicle. Killed two cops and left Tara unconscious in the trunk of the porsche." Emily paused for a moment as she scanned through the next page. "…Looks like she's going to be okay. Blunt force trauma to the back of the head, possible concussion. We can talk to her when we get there— JJ, you should've made that turn!"

"Excuse me?" I deadpanned. "Who grew up here, Emily? This way's faster. Keep reading."

Emily shut her mouth and smirked, shaking her head. "Fine. All we know about this guy is the direction he was headed on the highway, and that he keeps his victims for four days or more before killing them. The car he stole after shooting the cops was found abandoned not much later and nothing nearby has been reported stolen, so we don't know what he's driving… And the time between abductions is getting shorter. A woman called Katie Harris was reported this morning fitting the same profile—brunette, mid-thirties, middle class…"

"Surely someone saw what this guy looked like?" I asked disbelievingly.

"He abducts a woman outside a preschool, then shoots two cops in the middle of the highway and yet no one sees his face," Emily answered. "This guy's careful, even though the cooling off period between kills is decreasing."

"So why are we only getting called in on this now?"

Again Emily shook her head and continued going through the file in silence.

"Where'd they find the victims?" I asked after a pause.

Emily scanned the pages. "Various points along the bank of Lake Erie," she said. "All of them were found in the morning. Two by joggers, before 7am. The other two were found a bit later but they'd probably all been there overnight. Times of death ranging between 9pm and midnight."

"And the condition of the bodies?"

"Signs of sexual assault," Emily read off. "Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles indicating the victims were bound for a prolonged period. Fingernails were all clipped and clean, no trace of any foreign DNA… although if there ever were the water from the lake may have washed it away anyway."

"So he's thorough," I gathered.

Emily nodded. "Very… Given that the victims are all caucasian, it's safe to assume the same of our unsub—serial killers usually target members of their own racial groups… Age of the victims combined with the sophistication and organised nature of the crimes would suggest an unsub in his thirties or later."

"Which also means he's probably killed before," I concurred. "Garcia should run a check for earlier cases with similar MOs, possibly across jurisdictional lines."

Emily didn't reply, just picked up her phone and dialled, tapping the speakerphone icon automatically.

Once Emily had repeated the request, we could hear Garcia working at the keyboard over the line. "What happened when Hotch called?" she asked distractedly. "He seemed even more mysterious than usual this morning. Do you think he picked up on… you know what?"

"He was definitely suspicious," Emily sighed. "But if he had any doubt when he called, JJ definitely squashed it by getting over-defensive…"

Garcia laughed over my protests. "Oh no!" she cried, sounding more amused than concerned. "What did she say?"

"Pretty much told him to mind his own business," Emily answered, shooting me a sideways look.

"And he said…?!"

"Nothing," I grumbled, causing Emily to chuckle.

"Yeah, nothing for ages," she confirmed.

Garcia laughed again, clearly enjoying the situation in spite of the risk it posed. "I'll let you know what I find when I'm done searching. Good luck, ladies!"

"We're going to need it, aren't we?" Emily asked me seriously once she'd hung up.

I glanced at her, then back at the road. "Keep reading," I answered. "We have to focus on the case."

-

Hotch gave Emily and I a nod in greeting as we entered the precinct. He didn't show any sign of being annoyed with us but then, he wouldn't. Instead he gave a brief apology for cutting short our vacation time and got straight into the business of catching us up. We reciprocated with what we'd come up with on the drive over and were generally in agreement.

The case in Cleveland took four days and ended with a bit of a messy encounter in a barn several towns away. Why was it always a barn? Wasn't there something we could do to screen people intending to build large structures remote enough to be used as private torture chambers? There should be!

It was Emily who brought him in. She was banking on the fact that she could draw him out as a potential victim—someone who fit his preferences perfectly. I spent the final day of the case biting my tongue and proving to Hotch that I could be objective even when it was my oneday-wife in danger. It was neither easy nor enjoyable and we were too late to save the unsub's most recent victim, but Hotch seemed convinced. He gave me an approving nod as we left the barn. He seemed to be communicating mostly in nods on this trip and I didn't like that either—it meant he was thinking hard, probably deciding what to do about Emily and I.

"Hey, so I never asked what you guys were doing in the area before the case," Morgan recalled casually once we were finished at the precinct. He fixed Emily with a curious look as she glanced down the road toward her car, reluctant to answer.

Reid was already climbing into an SUV, ready to head back to the airport, but Emily and I were going to have to drive the whole way back—a longer road trip than we'd intended. Morgan let Reid wait up for him while he questioned us.

"I was visiting my parents," I replied, relieved to be the one with a legitimate reason for the trip.

"And I wanted to visit the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh," Emily lied. "We combined our agendas."

"Cute dog you have," Morgan replied with a bit of a grin. I couldn't tell if this was directed just to Emily, who ostensibly owned Oscar, or to both of us as a couple, so I kept my mouth shut. Then he elaborated, "I met Garcia at the dog park with Clooney."

"How did Oscar take to him?" I nearly babbled, happy to dump the attention on the dogs. "Clooney's massive!"

"Surprisingly well, actually," Morgan laughed. "We might have to make a regular thing of it. Anyway, I'll catch you ladies back at Quantico."

"In like six and a half hours," Emily groaned once he'd gone, but I could tell from her tone that she was relieved to be alone again. "My turn to drive…"

"We can share the drive this time," I replied with a smile.

We watched Morgan and Reid pull out onto the road and waved, leaving only Rossi and Hotch, who had just emerged from the precinct. Rossi gave a nod and a wave and turned in the opposite direction toward their SUV, while Hotch took a few steps toward us. His eyes were utterly unreadable and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. Did he really want to have this conversation on the side of the road?

After a few moments it became clear that it was _us_ Hotch was trying to get a read on. I decided to help him out, reaching for Emily's hand and nodding. "We know you'll want to talk to us when we get back."

Hotch was silent for a few moments more, then he shook his head. "Nothing about your behaviour during this case, or any other, has given me reason to be suspicious," he replied lowly. "As long as you keep it out of the office, I don't have to know anything about this."

I could tell that he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave it there, but there was no point in putting it off any longer.

"Hotch, I really appreciate that, but I think you do," I hedged with a confirmatory glance up at Emily. "If everything goes well, in month or two we'd like to start trying for a baby."

Rossi got out of the car when he saw Hotch hugging us both, clearly realising he was missing out on something important.

"What's all this?" he called as he approached. His tuneful Italian-America accent sounded somehow even more musical than usual.

For once Hotch seemed at a loss for words. He clearly felt that it wasn't his news to tell, yet the moment I'd mentioned the baby his expression had changed entirely. Oh, it didn't mean he wasn't mad at us for keep secrets from him, I was sure, but Hotch was a family man at heart. The fact that he'd gone through so much with his own family only strengthened his feelings in that regard.

I watched Rossi step around Hotch to take Emily and I in: holding hands and smiling too broadly for just anything. I had to laugh as the surprise registered plainly on his face, followed by a devious look of understanding.

"We were going to wait to tell everyone," Emily flustered, her cheeks were pink but she sounded happy. Her free hand lifted to rake through her hair and she shook her head at me uncertainly. "We had a date picked out and everything…"

"Morgan and Reid still don't know," I pointed out, unable to contain my grin.

"You really think Morgan didn't guess?"

"Well, it's almost certain to have gone over Reid's head!"

To my surprise, Hotch laughed too, although Rossi seemed still to be battling confusion. It occurred to me that once Emily and I had a baby we'd probably be able to convince Hotch to do anything we liked. He wasn't a man to show his emotions openly but he was clearly excited. For the first time I considered his potential as a godfather for our child.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Rossi directed me, "This old brain's getting a bit…" He waved his hand as if to say _vague_ or _addled_, but we all knew Rossi was perfectly capable. "You two have been seeing each other and four profilers, plus the likes of Penelope Garcia didn't pick up on it?"

We weren't about to correct him on that—better if they all thought they weren't alone in not knowing!

"We're having a baby," Emily burst out, letting Rossi in on the secret entirely. And although there was supposedly still a month and a half or more before we'd intended to make that decision, I only felt love and pride at the way she said it with such certainty.

"Technically we're only having an _idea_ right this second," I still had to correct her. "But we're going to start trying…" When? Would the fact that the team was finding out pushing the date forward? My heart leapt with excitement. "Soon," I finally said, smiling up at Emily.

"We've been in Pennsylvania talking to JJ's parents," she explained.

"And it went well?" Hotch asked immediately.

I was quick to assuage the fatherly concern I could hear in his tone, although I was still a little gobsmacked by the outcome of the trip myself. "Yeah, as well as these things go," I laughed. "My mom's really excited. …Emily's mother is working on it."

Emily laughed sharply at that, drawing a couple of raised eyebrows. "The ambassador is perfectly fine with us having a baby," she corrected me. "She'd just like for us to do it somewhere she won't have to worry about us offending the sensibilities of her conservative friends… So, Hotch, if you get any mysterious requests on your desk asking for JJ or me to transfer to Europe—_please_, don't sign them!"

"She suggested this to you?" Hotch asked. He sounded more amused than surprised; he had met the ambassador, after all.

"It was her idea of a compromise," Emily explained.

"I'm sure we'll have to make more difficult compromises with work," I acknowledged with a pointed look at Hotch. "If you need me to put in for a transfer somewhat more locally than Paris or Berlin, I will. And if not, well, hopefully I'll be on maternity leave later this year or next year…" I crossed my fingers and held them up theatrically, biting my lip for good measure.

Hotch's glance toward Rossi confirmed the eventuality that I'd been expecting:

"We're going to have to talk to Strauss."


	8. Chapter 8

**AN./ Sorry it's been so long since my last update! Thanks for keeping on nagging me, I promise I haven't forgotten this story or my others (and I have a lot more in the works that I'm keeping under my wing for now!). Here is an extra long and extra naughty chapter to make up for everything. If naughtiness isn't your thing, just skip the end of the chapter from whichever point starts making you uncomfortable! ;) Hope I've still got readers out there somewhere... -Bec xx**

**Chapter 8**

Within a week I was standing in front of 'my' mirror again—the broad, full-length one on the outside of Emily's closet—getting ready for the ambassador's going away party. Emily had been relegated to the far less convenient mirror in the en suite but was taking her relocation well. She had other things on her mind right now.

As this was the evening that would out Emily (and me, rather less significantly) to all of her mother's high-flying friends, I guessed that whatever Emily was doing in the bathroom probably included having a well-deserved fit. I was giving her space to compose herself but, if I was honest, my nerves weren't bothering me much at all. Most prominent in my mind was the fact that, after tonight, Emily's mother would be flying off to Berlin and the two of us could relax again. I only felt a little guilty about that thought.

"Em, how's it going? Are you about ready?" I called, adjusting the hem of my dress and tilting my hips to make sure it remained modestly just below my knees. "It's just gone 7.15."

Emily was out of the bathroom two seconds later and I wasn't surprised to see that she was already perfectly polished. Her make up was spot on, her hair lightly curled and pinned in an elegant knot, and her dress... would've looked better of the floor, but I suppose it was nice on, too. She'd probably been ready for the past half hour. I was the one who always slowed us down.

"You look 100% above suspicion of impropriety," I offered, because this was the kind of compliment that seeing the ambassador necessitated.

"Thanks," she replied, lifting a hand to double-check her earrings were firmly in place. No... This was Emily. She was probably triple-checking. Her voice was strained.

I knew it was no use telling her to calm down. By the time we reached her mother's door she'd be the picture of poise—the idiomatic belle of the ball. Emily's worriedly darting eyes and pursed lips were a sight for me alone and, although I didn't draw attention to her behaviour, I appreciated it. It made me feel like we were beyond pretending perfection for one another.

"My mother invited Strauss," Emily told me—perhaps forgetting that she already had or perhaps just needing to remind herself. "I think she was trying to help us with that, in her own way... Apparently Strauss was pretty tickled to receive an invitation."

I snickered at that. "I have a hard time imagining Strauss being _tickled_ about anything. Except maybe World War III or the mass execution of all the world's baby animals."

"I know but we kind of need her to be if we want her to turn a blind eye to our relationship," Emily pointed out. "Since she's our section chief, it's pretty much at her discretion whether or not she wants to allow us to keep working together."

"If only the chain of command ended at Hotch," I sighed. "No... If only you and me being together was only about _you_ and _me_ and nobody else got to have an opinion about it."

Emily smiled sympathetically before leaning in to place a kiss on my lips. "_This_ is about you and me," she said softly. "All of the important things are. We're making an effort for the likes of my mother and Strauss tonight but if that's not enough for them, you know who I'll choose between them and you."

I kissed her back until the very last minute before we had to leave. Then I reapplied my lipstick and led the way out the door.

* * *

Emily's mother was greeting guests by the door when we arrived. She looked ten years younger in pearls and a designer dress and it was clear to see that she was in her element hosting.

"Emily, Jennifer," I'm so glad you could come and see me off," she said as we entered. Then two seconds later she had moved on and was addressing a man behind us. That suited me fine. I knew I'd put up with almost anything for Emily but the less I saw of her mother, the better.

As we entered the hall where the guests were amassing, I stuck to Emily's side and tried not to look as stunned as I felt. It was one of those huge rooms you always see in movies, the centrepiece of which was a massive staircase presided over by a crystal chandelier. I resisted asking Emily, _What now?_—I felt like I should know.

Thankfully Emily took the lead. She procured two flutes of champagne from a well-dressed man with an apron around his waist who called her _little Em_ and looked pleased to see us. Emily didn't introduce me but I got the feeling he knew who I was anyway.

"Who's here, Vlad?" She asked, glancing around. "Anyone interesting?"

"Oh, they are all interesting," the waiter replied, curling his lip in what I took as a private smile. Then he lowered his voice. "But if you're talking about the other embassy brats... Luka and Peter are stalking the canapés."

Emily grinned widely. "Thanks Vlad!"

"No problem," Vlad replied. "Now, are you going to introduce me to Jennifer for my efforts?"

"Jennifer_,_ this is Vlad. _Vlad,_ Jennifer…" Emily replied with a less-than-obliging eye roll. "My mother kidnapped Vlad from the Ukraine years ago. He does almost everything for her and then puts on an apron and pretends he's just a waiter for kicks. I told him about you when I came to visit mother a few weeks ago, which is why he's completely unsurprised by your existence and not shy about it."

"Nice to meet you," I replied, still feeling a little lost, and then Emily was gracefully leading me away, apparently in search of these friends of hers.

Luka and Peter were twins from some European country I forgot the name of immediately after I heard it. Both were as tall and slender as each other with pale skin and long hair. Luka's was loose and gently curled, while her brother's was swept back into a neat ponytail. It looked so fine and soft; I was actually tempted to ask for the name of his conditioner. He was the one to see Emily first and he wasted no time in sweeping her up in a big bear hug.

"Em!" he cried, just a little too loudly for his surroundings. "It's been so long!"

"We weren't actually going to come but your mother said you'd be here," Luka added, more quietly. She had a soft, musical voice that seemed at odds with her imposing height and sophisticated appearance. It took me a moment to adjust to the apparent contradiction.

"Who's your friend? ...Girlfriend? …Friend with benefits?" Peter studied Emily's reaction with a cheeky grin. "Okay, I'm guessing girlfriend. You naughty girl! Does your mother know?"

"Her mother invited me," I inserted pointedly. There wasn't much I hated more than being talked about as though I wasn't there, yet I got the impression it was going to happen more than once more over the course of the evening. "I'm Jennifer, Emily's partner."

Peter continued to stare at Emily, who gave him a look that I can only describe as _'You heard the lady,'_ before whirling his attention on me.

"Now would that be a collegial partnership or a sexual partnership, Jennifer?" Peter asked in a tone of excessive politeness.

I kept my expression impassive as he studied me. It wasn't the first time I'd had to meet a significant other's friends; I was well aware that I was being tested. "That would be a _life _partnership, Peter," I replied sweetly and I suppressed a grin as he nodded and began to laugh. Apparently I'd passed.

"Wo-ow, Em. You've always known how to pick 'em but this one's a _stunner! _Doesn't bat an eyelash either. Good quality to have around is _very _nice to meet you, Jennifer. I'm Peter. And this is my sister Luka." Peter gave a dorky little bow and then winked towards his twin. "Be nice to her. She's still recovering from Emily dumping her."

I turned my head to gawp at Emily as Luka punched her brother less-than-playfully in the arm. The five foot eleven foot blonde's eyes were large and concerned like a cow's.

"He's just being an asshole," she intimated softly, a blush rising up in her cheeks. "Emily and I haven't dated since high school."

"I'm not worried," I reassured her. I could've hit myself as hurt flickered in Luka's eyes. Apparently not the thing to say. I changed tack. "I got the impression that everyone from this part of your life thought you were straight, Em."

"Oh, _they_ do," Peter laughed jovially. "We're near the only exceptions. I'm surprised the ambassador let Emily bring you, Jennifer… Unless—oh sweet lord—are we going public, Prentiss?!"

Emily narrowed her perfectly painted eyes at him. "Yes, Peter. We are. So no stupid schemes tonight. We want people to like us."

"I'd ask when you got so bossy but then… you haven't changed at all, have you, M&M?" Peter had no qualms with laughing at his own joke but Emily had to hide a smile. "Come on, don't be so serious!"

"Peter," she sighed. "Every big conservative politician in the state is here, as is our section chief, just waiting for an excuse to get rid of one or both of us… Anytime you want to meet up for a drink, you can regale Jen with all the tragically embarrassing stories about me you can either remember or make up. Just not tonight."

"She's stressing," I mentioned, as Peter's face fell.

"'Course she is," Luka agreed sympathetically. "Being high strung is encouraged in these circles… You okay, babe?"

"I'm fine," Emily insisted. "Don't call me that."

"I've been calling you that for the past, like, 20 years. It doesn't mean anything," Luka replied, sounding a little put out. "I know you've got a girlfriend now and all but—"

_I was here first,_ was the vibe I was starting to get from Luka but Emily barely acknowledged her ex's gradual souring. I think she was too nervous to be _baby_'d in general, whether by me _or_ Luka. I tried not to be jealous. It wasn't like I hadn't dated anyone before Emily. I'd _married_ Will...

"I just— Not tonight. I can't—"

"Em," I cut in, a little sharply. Now I was concerned. The Emily I knew would never let her guard slip in public and yet I could tell she was on the verge of panicking. Maybe it was being around her old friends, maybe she was worrying about me thinking there was something going on between her and Luka (which was rubbish because being stupidly jealous is a far cry from actually believing the person you're with would cheat on you), or maybe it was just nerves about the whole _coming out_ thing in general. Emily hated politicians and she hated acting but I was still worried—usually she was better at it than this.

"Sorry, Jayj, I—"

"Emily, it's okay," I promised, brushing my hand across the small of her back. I wanted to kiss her but I didn't know if it would be okay, so instead I offered a reassuring smile. I was relieved and gratified when she leaned down to brush her lips over mine. It was a short, chaste kiss—neither of us had forgotten where we were—but it made me feel better and she seemed relieved too, after.

"Well, that was cute," Peter commented, nudging his sister. Both of them were smiling, although I noticed that Luka was smiling deliberately at Emily, rather than me.

"Know what'll be even cuter?" Emily asked. Her voice was lilting teasingly and I wondered where she was going with her question until she answered herself. "Next time we're here, we may well have a little baby who looks just like Jenny." She grabbed my elbow and seemed to take delight in sweeping me out from under her friend's noses. "Gotta go—lots of mingling to do!" she called over her shoulder.

I glanced back to see two of the most stunned faces I'd ever seen and a thrill ran through me. I may not have known Emily in high school but I was the one who understood who she was now. If it was between Luka and me, today, I knew there was no competition for Emily's heart.

"I'm going to show you off," she whispered to me, sounding more confident than I'd heard her sound all night.

I leaned into her side as she led me through the crowd. That was absolutely fine by me.

* * *

You'd think that, after the first twenty or thirty times, I'd get over hearing Emily saying, "...And this is my partner, Jennifer," but I did not. I used not to like the word _partner_ but in this setting, I loved it. It sounded classy, definite, not at all juvenile, like _girlfriend_ sounded by comparison. I also liked the implication of equality, of doing things together. Although one point I had to stifle a giggle behind my hand as my mind wandered and I began to consider alternative and far less decent titles I could give Emily.

We were chatting to an ambassador from the UK when I spotted Strauss. She was walking arm in arm with a salt-and-pepper somebody of a moderate but not overwhelming height and I could feel my eyes widening as I realised who it was.

Because it was Rossi. Strauss was being escorted by _our _David Rossi! Surely there was no way she could give Emily and I trouble now! I couldn't wait to have a chance to speak to her—or to see how Rossi would react to Emily and I catching him with the dragon lady. Somehow it seemed far more scandalous than our own relationship.

I glanced at Emily to see if she'd noticed them but she was deeply engaged with the ambassador, who was wittering in an incomprehensibly thick Welsh accent. I let him finish his story, smiled broadly, and then excused the two of us as politely as I could. We picked up another couple of champagnes while I explained what I'd seen and we scanned the shifting crowd for Strauss and Rossi. Instead, we found Hotch, who had just come in the front door. He gave a friendly nod as he saw us and we were obliged to temporarily abandon our search to catch up with him.

"The Ambassador thought you could use a friend in the room," he explained quietly. "Just in case."

"She worked with Hotch years ago," Emily explained for my benefit.

"Strauss is here too," I announced, because this was still at the forefront of my mind. "And you'll be surprised who she's with!"

Hotch gave me an amused look which I took to mean he wasn't going to be surprised at all but he enjoyed the fact that _I_ was. "Have you spoken to them?" He asked, confirming my suspicions.

"Well, I don't want to embarrass them," I answered impatiently, "But at the same time, it's kind of perfect for us..."

Suddenly I began to suspect that this was exactly what Emily's mother had had in mind when she invited Strauss and her surprising plus one.

"One secret for another. I can see that working out," Hotch agreed thoughtfully. "Anyway, there are still a few people I know in these circles... I'll be around if you need me."

Emily gave me vague, unrevealing as he left to find some friends and then took a quick breath in, steeling herself. At the same time, I caught sight of Rossi again and he caught sight of me. I raised a hand in greeting and I saw his hand brush Strauss's arm—a warning—as we approached.

"Emily, JJ," she greeted us, sounding as primly disapproving as ever. "You're looking lovely."

"That's a gorgeous dress, ma'am," Emily replied. "...And I guess you're looking pretty dapper too, Dave." She delivered the last line with a smile that looked so calm and easy that I had to stop for a second just to marvel at her finesse.

"Have you seen Hotch?" I asked Strauss and Rossi, knowing they hadn't but feeling the need to warn them. "This is turning into a bit of a BAU reunion."

"Right, because we don't see enough of each other at work?" Rossi joked. I don't think I was imagining that his casual tone was affected far less skilfully than Emily's.

"Don't worry, we'll stay out of your way," Emily replied, still smiling. "We just wanted to say hi." _And kind of blackmail you into accepting our intra-office romance._

"Your mother is leaving for a posting in Berlin soon, isn't she, Emily?" Strauss put in, obviously trying to gain a sense of control over the conversation.

"That's right," Emily answered. "I'm really happy for her. She loved it the last time and she has a lot of friends in Europe." She paused for a second, probably wondering how to phrase what came next. "Usually I stay away from mother's parties but it's been a long time since I've seen her friends and she wanted me to, ah, see her off and, um…"

"You know, prove she still has a daughter lurking in the city," I supplied, keeping my tone bright. "Actually, we're hoping that soon enough she'll have a granddaughter or grandson to show off too." I looped my arm around Emily's waist and gave her a revealing kiss on the cheek. I think I got an admiring look from Rossi for that and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning. Emily wasn't the only one who could play these political games.

Strauss didn't beat around the bush with civilities.

"Did you know?" she asked Rossi. It was hard to tell what she was thinking. Neither her voice nor her expression had changed in the slightest.

"Only as of recently," Rossi replied carefully. His loyalties were clearly divided on this one. "And not because of any change in their behaviour at work."

I sent him a look of silent gratitude and he avoided my eyes, although I think he too was hiding a smile.

"Then it seems we are in a similar position," Strauss concluded, as we'd hoped she would. "As long as discretion is maintained, we will have nothing to talk about."

It wasn't exactly a heartfelt _congratulations _but it was all we wanted or needed from Strauss. Rossi offered a wink from behind her back and then the two of them disappeared into the crowd.

For the rest of the night, Emily and I did our best to avoid crossing their paths. There was only one more occasion on which we passed close enough to hear them and it was a complete accident. As the evening was winding down and the list of diplomats and politicians we had yet to schmooze dwindled, Emily and I took a quick break out in the garden. This was Emily's mother's house so, of course, she knew her way around. She was certain she knew a place where no one would bother us for a while. Only, it turned out she wasn't the only one to have that idea.

On a low marble bench, tucked neatly out of sight, we stumbled upon Rossi and Strauss. Their backs were turned on us, thank God, but for a few moments we were dumbstruck. We could only stare as Rossi murmured something in that notorious ice woman's ear, as _she _laughed, and the two of them leaned in to share a kiss.

I squeezed Emily's hand, shooting her a look that meant, _Let's get the hell out of here! _But by the time we had ourselves together enough to move, Strauss had looked up and caught us.

And. She. Blushed.

I could almost feel the earth spinning off into the nether of space. Section Chief Strauss had a soft side?!

"Sorry!" I laughed in an awkward _ha ha ha_ kind of way. "I guess we had the same idea." I raised Emily and my joined hands to demonstrate our intention. "Um, bye!"

We were out of there in an instant, before anyone had a chance to reply, and Emily took the lead, pulling me around another corner, into a shadowy corner just out of sight of the courtyard and the door leading inside. For a minute or two we just gasped and giggled like a pair of disbelieving teenagers who'd just run into a teacher on a date. Then, before I could even see the change occurring, she turned intense.

It was dark by now and the area we were in was far enough away from the party not to be artificially lit. Emily's face was in shadows as she backed me up against the wall. Cool stone pressed into my back and I felt one of Emily's hands sliding over my hip, while the other slipped under my dress and up my thigh. Her head hung forward and she seemed to hesitate before brushed her lips against my jaw. I tilted my head back and exposed my neck and I sighed when Emily took the hint and started kissing her way down my throat.

"You look really beautiful tonight, Em," I whispered huskily. "I can't wait to get you home and do all kinds of naughty things to you..."

"Oh yeah?" Emily chuckled. The tip of her tongue traced circles against my neck, while her hands continued to move over me gently, unhurriedly.

"Yeah..." The hand under my dress reached my ass and I gasped. We were outside her mother's house at a party attended by all kinds of important people, not to mention three of the people we worked with. Yet somehow that only excited me more. I placed my hand over Emily's and directed her to support me as I lifted my leg up over her hip. Oh yeah, I was not being subtle about what I wanted and Emily pulled her head back to look at me in surprise. She didn't stop caressing me though, which I took as a good sign.

"Speaking of doing naughty things..." She murmured. "Baby, are you getting turned on by being touched in a public place?"

Mmm... She was calling me 'baby', this was definitely a good sign. Although she didn't exclusively use that endearment when she was trying to seduce me, I know she knew that it had that effect on me. I decided to oblige her.

"Yeah, Em," I sighed, rubbing her hand up and down my thigh and shifting my hips teasingly. "I can feel myself getting wetter for every second we're out here like this... Anyone could see us... Tell me, is this how all you diplomat types manage to keep so calm?"

"Firstly," Emily mused, "I highly resent being lumped in with those '_diplomat types'_ in there..." Her mouth was back against my neck but my focus was on the hand on my thigh, which was sliding from the outside to the inside, creeping ridiculously slowly up towards my centre. "Secondly, are you really asking me if I think the reason they're so cool and collected is that they're all getting off in public?"

"I don't know," I moaned softly. "It could be a _'how the other half lives' _thing... Are _you_ gonna get me off, Em?"

I felt her fingertips brush over the partition of my lower lips through my panties, deliberately avoiding my clitoris. "Baby, I'm not sure it's a good idea..." she answered. "I really want to but if we get caught..."

"Well, I can't go back inside feeling this horny—fact," I replied, meeting her eyes seriously.

Emily's fingers twitched over my covered pussy. I don't think it was an intentional movement but my hips automatically shifted in response, trying to get closer to the source of the pleasure.

"Em," I pleaded. "Just slip your finger into my panties and you'll see that I'm way too wet to go back inside. Either we leave like _now_ or you gimme a little release, that's all I'm asking..."

Emily glanced around uncertainly. "You are certifiable, Jareau," she groaned but she did as I asked and nudged the crotch panties to once side so she could trail her index finger between my labia. I felt her whole body tense against me and that only increased my arousal more.

"Oh god, Jen," she breathed out heavily. "Oh god, you're... How are you so...?"

"Emmy... I'm not going to last long if you do this," I begged. I was beyond shame. I just wanted to come. "Just touch me, please... I'll be quiet..."

I could feel it the second Emily gave in. Her whole body language changed. And then, a beat later, she leaned in and kissed me. God, it was so hot. I knew she had to be as aroused as I was because, right from the start, she was kissing me in that wet, desperate way she usually kissed me right before she lost it. Her fingers streamed more confidently through my slit, slick with my juices. I gasped into Emily's mouth and used her lips and her neck and her shoulder alternatively to muffle all the noises I was desperate to make but knew I couldn't. At one point I bit down on her shoulder and _she _moaned out loud. But it was too late to stop and be sensible about things. I could feel my orgasm building as Emily rubbed me frantically. Our crazed kisses only fuelled my need and I began to touch her in return, reaching up to grab at her breasts. It was hardly the most sophisticated way we'd ever made love but then, the circumstances weren't exactly normal. I sucked Emily's tongue into my mouth and rubbed my thumbs over her nipples and I felt her hand on my pussy jar as she struggled to keep her body under control.

"JJ, don't work me up like that," she pleaded. Her voice was necessarily quiet but it was also dripping with need and emotion. "I'm just doing you 'cause you begged and then we're—ah!—we're saying goodbye to my mother getting the hell out of here!"

I wanted to argue but I knew Emily wouldn't take no for an answer. I reluctantly dropped my hands to her hips and tilted my head back, making it hard for her to lean in and kiss me. Her mouth returned to my neck instead and I had to stifle a cry. God, I loved her there.

"Emmy, I'm so close."

"Oh fuck," Emily grunted, frigging my clit hard. "Whenever you call me that I know you're gonna come."

"Emmy! ...Oh, Emmy!" I gasped and now Emily did kiss me again—to shut me up.

Our mouths rolled against one another, all lips and tongues and wet, disordered heat. I dug my nails into her hips as I felt the first signs. She pulled her head back and looked me in the eye and I nodded, struggling not to squeeze my own eyes tight shut. My heart was hammering in my chest—the need to be quiet making it seem so much louder than it was. I kept eye contact with Emily as she tipped me over the edge and I knew she felt it the second it happened. I opened my mouth but forced myself to stop the sound. My jaw hung down as I shuddered and shook and I held Emily tight, never looking away. Her eyes were wide and dark, her pupils dilated. And I was coming...

She stroked me all the way through it and when it was over I slid my leg off her hip and let her smooth out my dress. But I made her let me lick my come from her fingers. I watched her shiver at the sensation.

"The things I am I going to do to you when we get home..." I whispered, an echo of my earlier promise.

We waited ten more minutes to catch our breath and compose ourselves and then we went inside to clean up in the bathroom and begin our goodbyes. Emily was tightly wound the whole time but I was on a high. No matter whom I talked to, the dialogue bounced. People smiled at me and told me what a sweet girl I was. Even Emily's mother seemed impressed by some of the people I managed to win over, sometimes in spite of their personal beliefs. When we left, she kissed me on the cheek and told me quietly that she hoped everything went well with our plans to have a baby and Emily wished her well for her posting in Berlin.

Emily looked absolutely gobsmacked. I'm still not sure whether she was astounded by how nice her mother was being to us or it had just hit her that her mother had probably been within a couple hundred metres back when she'd had my tongue down her throat and her fingers up my snatch. Either way, the weight of the farewell fell to me. I graciously thanked Ambassador Prentiss for the evening and then guided Emily out to the car.

I flashed her a wicked grin once we were safely out of sight. "Don't hate me," I laughed, "But I wouldn't mind doing that again sometime..."


	9. Chapter 9

**AN./ This is for all the people who haven't let me forget this story... ;) It's probably the one I get most frequently nagged about! Sorry for the wait! -Bec xx**

**Chapter 9**

One week before our three month trial period was set to end, poor Reid still had no idea. The other members of the team were even less subtle than Emily and I about our relationship and yet, somehow, he alone remained in the dark. Oh, he knew _something_ was going on behind his back but I guess he just wasn't the type to make the leap.

Three months is approximately 90 days, most of which we'd spent in the office. So, by this point, it was resoundingly clear that Reid wasn't going be hinted into making an assumption about Emily and I. He was the one member of the team who looked like he was going to require an official sit-down-and-chat outing.

I tried my best to prepare him. In our last week of closetedness, along with all the other preparations we were making along the lines of research and preliminary appointments at the IVF clinic, Emily and I laid the gayness on hard. We made ambiguous statements about our love lives, hummed Mary Lambert songs as we walked down the street, and generally gave a nod to every bad cliche we could think of. I considered a plaid shirt adorned with rainbow protest badges but couldn't get past the cringe factor. It just wasn't me.

It was time to give up. Two nights to go 'til our deadline and Spence was still either oblivious or fiercely determined not to label us without our explicit consent. Damn his consideration of our feelings!

"I think it's best if I tell him alone," I sighed, pacing Emily's living room anxiously.

Emily was lying on the couch with Oscar licking her feet; the 'no dogs on the couch' rule had since been relaxed to 'no dogs on the couch unless you lay a blanket out beneath them'. She was flicking through a pamphlet the doctor had given us with infuriating calmness.

"Did you know that if we want to paint or recarpet the baby's room, we have to do it months before the baby's born to give it time to air out?" she asked without answering me.

"I- What-? Em, I'm trying to figure out what to do about Spence!" I flustered.

"Give him some statistics," Emily replied dryly. "He'll like that. ...Would you consider my apartment child-friendly, Jayj?"

"I _tried_ looking up statistics," I moaned. "As of last year, approximately 3% of those surveyed in the US identified as LGBT. That's 3 in every hundred, and definitely not the 10% of the population I thought it was before I Googled it. What am I supposed to do? Gather 32.3 people into a room with me and tell Spence, 'I'll give you a hint: it's none of them?'"

Emily snickered at that. "What else did your Google search turn up?" she asked.

I shifted Emily so that I could flop down onto the couch myself and then lifted her head into my lap. "That bisexuals were more likely to have experienced psychological distress in the 30 days prior to the survey than straight people..."

I had to smile as Emily laughed unguardedly. "Baby, are you in psychological distress?" she teased.

"Uh huh," I answered with a pout. "And, for the record, this is the least child-friendly apartment I've ever seen in my entire life. In fact, it's bordering on intentionally child-hostile. An infant let loose in here could find ten ways to accidentally sever a limb and/or a major artery before you could so much as close the door behind it."

"Ha-ha... Jen, what is it about telling Reid that bothers you so much?" Emily asked. "You were amazing with Strauss."

"Because I knew we had our bases covered with her," I sighed. "And I don't care what she thinks of me as a person. Besides, I never dated _Strauss_."

Emily sat bolt upright at that, causing Oscar to start and jump off the couch. "You dated _Reid_?"

"We only went out a few times," I clarified, cringing under her wide-eyed stare. "It was before you and I met - back when Gideon was around. He took me to a game and we had a really good time. But then he started wanting to do more _date_-y things, like getting dinner alone and taking romantic walks, and I realised that, even though I had a tonne of fun being with him, I didn't see him as anything but a really good friend." I shrugged uncomfortably. "Until Maeve, I wasn't sure he'd ever really dated again. And then that ended so terribly... I don't know. I kind of wish he'd found someone special just so I could stop feeling guilty. He really loved me, Em."

"Wow..." Emily answered softly. "I always knew you two were closer than the rest of the team but I didn't realise- Well, okay, I suspected he had feelings for you but..." She shook her head. "Ha... You know, in retrospect, I _did_ get the impression that he didn't like me at the beginning."

"Seriously?"

Emily nodded, leaning into my side as she relaxed. One of her arms fell casually around my waist. "Yeah. I mean, none of you trusted me - don't lie, I don't blame you for it - but there was something particular about Reid... Maybe he saw how interested I was in you, whether he consciously registered it or not. He may well have been jealous."

"You were _not_ interested me right when you joined the team," I snorted.

"Wasn't I?" Emily asked. "Not that you noticed but I decided the minute I saw you that you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. And you said yourself that Will felt intimidated by my jealousy when he flirted with you. I think I was more obvious than you realise."

"But why didn't you say anything?!"

"Why didn't I tell my ostensibly straight female colleague that I had a crush on her right after being _reluctantly_ accepted into the job of my dreams?" Emily scoffed. "...Anyway, you were all so sure I was spying on you for Strauss. And you were so close as a team! I was such an outsider. I was certain that the moment I came onto you, I'd be up in front of Hotch having to explain why I'd risked it all in my first week over some, admittedly gorgeous, woman I didn't know."

"Just so you know, the fact that the job of your dreams is working at the BAU is probably the reason you get nightmares," I joked softly. I was still finding it hard to process that Emily had been interested in me for so many years_._ We'd wasted so much time.

"I was having nightmares long before I joined the BAU," Emily replied, surprising me. Even since we'd moved in together, we'd rarely talked about either of our nightmares. We held each other through them, then pretended we hadn't had to. It was easier than addressing our demons. "Fact is: you were one of the first members of the team to warm up to me. You let me prove myself through my actions rather than assuming the validity of a rumour. And you were gorgeous, Jennifer. Of course I fixated on you. It was years before I called it love but once I acknowledged that... Well, I wasn't surprised, put it that way."

Tilting her chin down towards me, I placed a tender kiss on Emily's lips. "I love you," I told her. Then I grabbed her brochure off the couch. "..._How_ long in advance of the baby's birth did you say we need to repaint?"

Emily hugged me into her side. "I was actually thinking, Jayj, since - as you say - my apartment isn't exactly child-friendly, we might find somewhere a little more appropriate... Somewhere there'll be room for you, me, Oscar, Sergio, and 2+ children. Plus a guest room so your parents can stay with us when they visit. And I'd like a garden. With one of those - what do you call those Australian washing line contraptions?"

"A Hills Hoist?" I supplied disbelievingly.

Emily grinned at me. Hope completely lit up her face. "What do you think?" she asked. "Ideally we'd find somewhere before the baby is born so we have time to get it set up and ready... You know you can get little rubber covers to put on sharp table edges so the kid doesn't hurt themselves? And plastic caps for electrical sockets so no little fingers get stuck inside or electrocuted!"

"If you're trying to distract me from being nervous about telling Reid, it's working," I laughed. "Emily, all that sounds perfect." I pulled her in for a quick, light kiss, which turned into several far longer, heavier ones. "Know what... Else... Would be... Fab?" I sighed in the brief interludes where her mouth left mine.

"Does it involve going upstairs and having sex?" Emily asked coyly.

"Oh, Emily," I giggled. "We are _so_ in sync!"

* * *

I gave up on subtlety the next day at work. As soon as we got off on our lunch break, I walked over to Reid's desk and sat on the edge. "Hey, Spence, wanna get lunch? I need your advice."

Once we were alone with food in front of us, I dived right in with the premise Emily and I had thought up last night. "So - you're from Vegas," I announced, as if he didn't know. "Do you think you or anyone you know back home would be interested in helping me and Emily pick some venues for a bit of a party weekend?"

"Is this one of her _Sin to Win_ things?" Reid asked curiously.

Despite my nerves, I had to laugh. "Not this time, Spence. Actually, we were hoping the whole team would come down with us."

Reid raised an eyebrow. "Are we doing family holidays now?"

"Just a weekend," I argued. "Plus we'd be celebrating!"

Now Reid's curiosity really was piqued. "Celebrating what exactly?"

I took a deep breath. "My, um- My last weekend to get totally smashed before I start IVF," I admitted.

Reid's reaction was - in retrospect - _priceless_. At the time I was too terrified to see the funny side but his jaw dropped just like a comic book character's.

"JJ, what?! Since when were you planning-? ..._What_?!"

"We've been planning to this for about three months now," I giggled - more out of anxiety than amusement. "We've been keeping it quiet until we were sure it would work out but um… It's looking good. And we've confirmed with our doctor and done all the prerequisite interviews and um, yeah, it's happening. And since it's all been such a big secret, we'd really like a chance to celebrate with everyone. Then we thought... What better place, right? Especially since I'm not going to be drinking for a long time afterwards!"

Reid was just shaking his head in disbelief and I knew which part his brain had caught on. "JJ, who's '_we_'?"

"I've been trying to tell you," I sighed, nearly pleading for his approval. "Spence, do you really not know?"

"Jayj, you've never said anything!" Reid protested. "Am I not supposed to be surprised by this?"

"It's Emily, Spence. _Emily_ and I are having a baby." I could tell from his expression that he'd had literally no idea and I felt awful. "I'm so sorry we didn't say anything sooner. We wanted to be sure we could do this before we shook the team up with it."

"Does Hotch know?" Reid asked, his eyes wide.

"Yeah," I quickly reassured him. "He's really happy for us, Spence. And this is going to get less weird, I promise. We'll all go out together, outside of work, and you can see how Emily and I are when we don't have to hide it. It'll make sense."

"Do you love her?" Reid asked. I knew he was struggling but he managed a small smile, which broadened when I beamed back at him.

"Oh god, Spence, I do!" I swore. "I love her more than anything! And both of us have wanted children for a long, long time. I know it sounds like we're moving fast but it's _all_ I want. There isn't any point in waiting."

Finally I got the heartfelt congratulations I'd been holding out for. Reid stood up, I followed suit, and he hugged me tight.

"Are you going to get married?" He asked as we separated and, unbelievably, I found myself blushing.

"Just as soon as I figure out how to ask her..."


End file.
